The Witch's Secret
by ShelliBear35
Summary: A warlock finds out about a secret that could cause the end of the Charmed Ones, and when they fight back they unknowingly become part of the warlock's evil plan . Leo is caught between trying to protect the girls' past and save thier future as witches.
1. Chapter 1

The Witch's Secret  
By: Michelle M. Anderson  
  
Dedicated to Suzanne, whom I pray one day will understand why I had to say good-bye.  
  
"Freeze him! Piper freeze him!" Phoebe screamed at the top of her lungs. As they chased the man he ran between some hedges, but he was still in plane sight. "Are you deaf? Freeze the man! Now!"   
  
Piper threw out her hands and he froze in place as she ran around the corner of the house. The horrible creature, though completely human looking, had a very young and attractive appearance.   
  
"No need to be personal Phoebe! There's only so fast that I can act. And did you forget that I have to be able to see him first?"   
  
"Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you."   
  
Why did all the good-looking guys turn out to be demonic? Ever since the Charmed Ones had discovered their magical powers it seemed like almost every demon or warlock in the underworld was trying to find a way into the girls' lives.   
  
All three of the magical sisters had had a boyfriend some time or another that wasn't of normal mortal makings. There was Piper and Jeremy, then Prue and Mitchell, and now there was Phoebe and Cole, but that was a story all of its own. It just seemed like bad luck with demonic guys wasn't something that the girls had invented. Patty, the Charmed Ones' mother, had even had her own fling a few years before the first Halliwell girl, Prue, was born, at least that is what Grams had told them a few years earlier. And now there was another evil entity, trying to fight his way into the witches' already hectic lives, luckily this one didn't get too far.   
  
He had shown up at the front door with a box in his hand looking as innocent as could be. According to what he told Phoebe, the package had supposedly been delivered to the wrong house, but when Phoebe reached over to take the box from his arms she touched his hand, and she vividly saw him standing over a body of a woman. Besides him there was also another woman standing next to him with a look of pleasure on her face, and on the floor beside to the body there was a knife, a warlock's sacrificial knife.   
  
When he realized that she had discovered him through a vision he panicked, after all the powers of the infamous Charmed Ones were widely known in the world of good as well as evil. He dashed down the stairs that lie outside the Halliwell Manor's front door, stumbling on the last few steps, but ultimately being able to remain standing.   
  
As he started to run across the steep front yard the three sisters dashed out the front door to follow him after Phoebe's insistence. They had to be extremely careful and not do too much in broad daylight, but luckily the warlock ran between the Halliwell Manor and the neighboring large Victorian house. The bushes formed a natural boundary and he could not be seen from any of the other houses or from the street.   
  
Thanks to Piper though the warlock was now a statue, froze in time in a rather strange crouching position ahead of the most powerful witches of all time.   
  
"Who is he?" Piper asked as she stepped closer.   
  
"A warlock, I assume." Phoebe answered trying to remember the events that she had seen in her vision a few minutes earlier. She hadn't had time to really analyze the premonition yet, but she knew the feeling of evil and she had just felt it.   
  
"Well, lets vanquish him!" Prue energetically ordered as she walked up next to her sisters.   
  
"And how do you plan to do that on this short of notice. It isn't like we have the Book of Shadows in our pant's pocket," Piper pointed out.   
  
"At least that is what he seemed to be," Phoebe added finishing her unsure thought.   
  
"And what gave you that idea?" Piper inquired.   
  
"A vision. What else would it be?"   
  
"Well, we better hurry and do something, no matter what it is. He will only stay that way for so long."   
  
"I know," Piper responded with an irritation in her voice. The limitation of her power was something that seemed to irritate her a lot, and she hated it when her sisters brought it up.   
  
A spark of brilliance appeared in Phoebe's eyes and she couldn't contain her excitement. "I have a new spell," she blurted out. "I just wrote it. Should I try it?" Phoebe's new love was writing spells, and she had become quite good at it.   
  
"I don't see why not," Piper answered.   
  
"You just better hurry. Time is running out, quickly."   
  
The girls joined hands forming a familiar circle around the warlock that was in front of them and prepared to listen and repeat what their sister said. Prue and Piper waited, expecting Phoebe to pull a piece of paper out of her pants pocket any moment, but instead she just began to chant.   
  
Of goodness lost   
And power sought   
A time to kill   
And a time to still   
The knowledge taken   
And love ones forsaken   
Denounce your way   
In our time's today   
  
The dust from the ground swirled wildly around his feet. As he unfroze his evil expression twisted into a smirk as if he thought he had won the battle, and he removed his hand from his suit jacket. As he threw his closed hand downward toward the ground he opened his fingers, and a red glass bottle fell and broke upon the dirt around his feet. From the bottle a gray smoke appeared that slowly filled the air encompassing the warlock. When the smoke finally let up it was clear that the man had vanished.   
  
Prue and Piper stood, open mouth, looking at Phoebe.   
  
"That was some vanquishing spell, Phoebe. How exactly did you come up with it?" Piper spoke up.   
  
"Ahhh--well--um--that was the strange part. I sort of thought it up in a dream, or at least I heard it in a dream last night."   
  
"You did what? Do you realize that the warlock probably just used the power of the Charmed Ones to do something that had to be evil." Prue looked mad as she talked to Phoebe in a punishing manor.   
  
"Strike that. There's no probably about it. He did just use your power to so something we will regret."   
  
"Phoebe, if you just heard it in a dream, how did you know it so well?" Piper asked, trying to sidetrack Prue's motherly scolding.   
  
"It's been repeating in my head all day, over and over and over. I thought that if I heard it one more time I would scream!"   
  
Piper looked at her watch. It was almost a quarter to seven in the evening, and the sun was starting to set. Boy, no wonder she knew it so well.   
  
"I even wrote it down thinking that it would help get it out of my mind. It sure is hard to study for my finals that are coming up with a incantation running through your brain twenty-four seven."   
  
Piper face began to turn red as she struggled to keep from laughing. "You were studying. That would be a first," Piper joked. "Since when do you study?"   
  
"Where?" Prue interrupted her sister's teasing.   
  
"Where what?" Phoebe asked a bit confused.   
  
"Where did you write it down?"   
  
"Oh, Ahhh---In the--Ahhh--In the Book of Shadows."   
  
"You did what!" Prue and Piper could barely believe their ears.   
  
"Last time I checked that's what its for," Phoebe did have a point.   
  
"Last time I checked it was for good spells," Piper corrected her.   
  
"Are you telling me that you wrote an evil spell in the Book of Shadows?" Prue couldn't believe her ears, though it was something she sort of expected from Phoebe.   
  
"Without asking us?" Piper reprimanded.   
  
"Since when do I need to ask permission to write in my book?"   
  
"Since when is the Book of Shadows just yours?" Prue responded.   
  
"I didn't say that."   
  
"I hate to start disagreeing with you but--" Prue continued   
  
"--Never stopped you before," Phoebe broke in expressing her aggregation.   
  
"Don't change the subject!" Piper yelled   
  
"I said, 'since when is the Book of Shadows just yours."   
  
"I remember. And I said 'I didn't say that."   
  
Prue's eyes became raged with anger. "Yes you did."   
  
"Well, that isn't exactly what I meant."   
  
"So what did you mean," Piper joined in.   
  
"I meant that I thought that all three of us could add to it when we wanted and in the way that we wanted without getting permission."   
  
"And what gave you that impression?"   
  
"No other witch had to get permission to use the book from their sisters, so why should I?"   
  
"I see your point," Piper finally accepted.   
  
Prue stood silent with the anger that had been brewing in her slowly subsiding.   
  
"Does anyone else think that that he made it too easy? I mean that he just ran himself into an obvious hiding area and then--stopped. It almost seemed like he was waiting for us to catch up with him." Phoebe thought about the man that she had supposedly vanquished. What had he thrown on the ground? What had just happened?   
  
"I know. I was thinking the same thing." Piper regretfully agreed.   
  
"We should have known that he was up to something," Prue added. "He could have just blinked and been gone from harms way, but he stayed."   
  
"Are we becoming so self confidant that we ignore the obvious? If we keep this up we aren't going to be doing any good. All we are going to do is make things worse if we aren't more careful," Prue scolded as she reprimanded her sisters and herself.   
  
The girls turned around and headed back toward the front door of their Victorian home.   
  
"Coast looks clear. Looks like we escaped the eyes of the mortal world again." Piper was right. The Charmed Ones were lucky that they had never been seen using their magical powers by anyone who could do damage with that knowledge. In other words, for the time being there secret was safe.   
  
"Well, at least one thing went right today." Prue knew that whatever had just taken place was the beginning of a very long, evil battle.   
  
* * *   
  
The priestess Carissa sat in her chamber moping. She had been waiting hours for her unreliable bother to show up, but as usual he hadn't. In her hands were two bottles, one red and one blue. Her plan was to use them to destroy the Charmed Ones. The short tempter that she had was driving her crazy. She wanted to destroy everything in site, but that was a power that only her brother possessed.   
  
Finally he showed up, standing in front of her feet.   
  
"Where have you been?" she screamed.   
  
"Observing the enemy, like you told me to."   
  
She wanted so much to attack now, but she wasn't ready. She had been planning to make her ultimate attack on the Charmed Ones for years now, and she had finally finished the potions she needed, but she lacked one important ingredient for her plan to succeed--the most important ingredient--a man. Not just any man would do though. He had to be a man who was evil, and he had to have powers to prove it. But there was one more thing; he had to be devoted to her and only to her.   
  
"You knew that I wanted you here two hours ago."   
  
"Yes, but when it comes to time travel, what difference does two hours make?"   
  
"My sanity!" she replied.   
  
Inside of her, her anger grew and grew, until she knew that she must act fast. For months now she had been planning to use her twin brother Kevin, but she felt that something had gone wrong. She didn't trust him--he seemed to be sympathetic to the victim of his sister's plan, but Carissa decided that it didn't matter. She knew that her time was running out, if she waited too much longer her plan wouldn't succeed. Still, she feared that he would tell some higher power of her plan to destroy the Charmed Ones.   
  
"More like your trust in me. Right!"   
  
Carissa suspected that her bother was becoming weak in his demonic ways, and that he may try to aide his former friends. Carissa and Kevin both use to be on the side of protecting the innocent, just like the Charmed Sisters, but Carissa's attitude toward good and evil had changed a long time ago and so had her devotion.   
  
"Don't forget these witches you want to destroy were your friends," Kevin tried to persuade his sister.   
  
"I know exactly who they are, and nothing you say is going to change my plans!"   
  
For so long she had fought to protect those she lived side by side with. She gave up everything to live by the creed that her ancestors had been sworn to. For generations her family, which was mostly females, had given their lives for the cause of ending demonic evil in the world, and never gave a second thought to what she was doing and never would have, but she had one desire that was stronger than protecting the innocent. She desperately wanted a family with children to raise the way she had been.   
  
When she married, at the age of twenty-two, she looked forward to the family that she knew she was destined to have. Her husband, Chris, knew nothing of her after hours activities, because she thought it best to not involve him in the affairs that he could not be part of. But she knew she had to protect him from what he had no knowledge of.   
  
When they married she created a special charm for him, an unbreakable necklace, which kept the evil that tracked Carissa from finding and attacking him. She gave it to him on their honeymoon and he promised never to take it off.   
  
It was a tradition in the world of witchcraft to give charms to love ones that did not have powers to protect themselves from evil. It worked perfectly, until he decided to have it copied to give to his wife as an anniversary present. After he took it to the jewelers with a promise date of the copy the next day he returned home where he waited alone for his wife to return. It didn't take long for a demon to attack the unprotected man, but luckily, Carissa soon returned home, and was able to vanquish the creature.   
  
Sadly, soon after that the trouble began. He did not understand the importance of her secret, and he refused to stay with someone he couldn't trust. He was frightened of the woman he had once loved, and knew that a life together would no longer be possible. Chris packed his things less than a week later and left the home and family that he and Carissa had created together.   
  
"I'm leaving this evil house, and don't you dare come after me!"   
  
Carissa didn't. She knew that it would make things worse than they already were. She never blamed him, though she didn't care for him in the same way. Who she did blame for the brake up were the powers of good that had condemned her with this gift that she now saw as a curse. She also blamed other witches that lived before her and passed the traits and the powers down the family line, and she swore from that day on she would make sure that no other person would have to feel the anguish that she was enduring.   
  
The first witch she claimed vengeance on was a good friend of hers named Tina. She thought that if she did her deeds out of the sight of others she would be able to continue using her magic, but she was wrong and caught by her Whitelighter while standing over the body, and her twin brother Kevin, who had not participated in the brutal attack, showed up just in time for it to look like he was also involved. But Kevin wasn't guilty, and he had spent the last few years despising his sister for turning him into an evil monster.   
  
Carissa had spent the years since her condemnation killing witches and those who helped them. She had even obtained a bow from a Darklighter so that she could kill the very people who helped the ones that she despised. Through it all she worked intensely on her plan. Through her destructive demonic actions she had gained the massive powers of the other witches that she had killed, but Kevin refused to be involved in such actions and was still virtually powerless. Thanks to her new role in life the task of killing witches was extremely easy. She lived in the underworld with full freedom to invade the world above in just the blink of her eyes and escape just as easily.   
  
When she had reached the age of accountability, she 'accidentally' found a spell that activated her powers. Through those powers she had made her strong, but she was extremely outraged that she wouldn't be able to pass those powers through her bloodline. The only traits that she had now were anger, revenge, and a short temper, and because of those traits she was determined to end what had caused her suffering.   
  
Lately though, she had spent all of her energy working on how to end this battle that she had inside her now-evil soul and her hatred for what had happened to her life. The best way out, she thought, is to destroy the most powerful witches of all times, and in the process gain something that she had always longed to have. But she knew in doing so that she would have to be prepared, extremely prepared.   
  
Though demons used to be her biggest threat, the Charmed Ones were her biggest meanness, and they were also a huge threat and to every other member of darkness, whether it was demon or a warlock. These three witches had foiled her plans many times. It seemed like every time she was about to succeed they would show up to stop her, and she wanted it to stop. So many others had tried to get rid of the Charmed Ones, some had been extremely powerful demons, but they had all failed. Still, she knew her plan would ultimately prevail. With them out of the way she would be able to attack the weaker covens much easier than she could now using the powers she gained from the Charmed Ones, but more importantly she would have their Book of Shadows!   
  
The witches that Carissa desired had great powers, and those powers were intensified because of the Book of Shadows. The Book of Shadows contained the greatest secrets and spells that had ever been written, and it had a life all of its own. That life protected itself from evil entities, and had been the reason why it simply couldn't be stolen. The lives of its witches had to be taken in order for someone to take the book, and if she had the book Carissa knew her power would be unbeatable.   
  
She understood what needed to be done. Somehow their power had to be ended or stripped. The aid that they gave to the world through working against evil was enormous, and it had to end. The problem was that Carissa was not strong enough herself to cause the end of the Charmed Ones, but she knew that her brother was.   
  
One option she thought of was to simply take their lives. "Simple!" she laughed out loud with a voice that evil had taken over just like her body and soul. "It will be anything but simple!"   
  
In fact that same task had caused the death of numerous entities, but if she could do it she could have all of their power for her own personal use and wouldn't be confined by the rules that govern witches powers. There was another option, one that would take more planning, but in the end would grant her desires.   
  
There was a secret that made some witches so strong. Actually, it wasn't a secret to those who were involved. The power that Carissa desired came from the family bloodline, and that was what she needed to capture. I need a member of the Halliwell Family, or someone born of it, to continue that greatness she conspired.   
  
But there was another factor. Carissa knew of that fact. It was why her older sister never became a witch. She refused the art. Though Carissa had originally fought the power that she knew was hers to claim, when the time came she willingly recited the words of the spell that activated her powers.   
  
Still that was something to worry about in the future. When the time was appropriate a spell could be made, and she could force the child to recite it. In the present Carissa had other concerns. The life that she desired, the power that she craved, and the love that she longed to have. Though love was a trait that was absent from darkness, it was a part of the human life that Carissa was accustomed to, and she had never been able to deal with life without it.   
  
"My destiny lies in the place where the Charmed Ones don't," she declared with an evil smile on her face. "And only I can make that destiny come true."   
  
And in the past, Carissa thought, the Charmed Ones are not a threat, not yet anyway. It's a place where their powers won't hinder my plans. My future awaits me in the past.   
  
* * *   
  
As the smoke that had engulfed him disappeared Kevin stood looking at the Victorian house.   
  
"It worked!" the warlock celebrated out loud. "I just wonder what time I ended up in."   
  
Kevin crept up next to the side of the house to make sure the cost was clear. Once he was sure that it was clear he ran down the lawn and onto the sidewalk of the house it seemed he had just left.   
  
A flying object came headed toward him, and out of instinct his arms shot toward it. Suddenly there was a burst of feathers going everywhere. "Oh, it was just a bird," he said once he realized what he had done. As he looked around to see if anyone had seen his power he started to fill guilty for the life he had just taken. "I can't take any chances, though." He quickly forgot the incident and continued toward the house that he had been assigned to conquer.   
  
"Come on Mom. Leave me alone. Let me have a life." A sweet voice was clearly heard from the walkway coming from the old Victorian house. A young slender lady with light brown hair walked through the door. Her body was beyond beautiful. Her high cheekbones and luscious red lips were full of fury, but quickly turned into a welcoming smile as she caught sight of the impending visitor.   
  
"Hello. May I help you?" the young lady asked as the not so gentleman walked up the sidewalk to the front door.   
  
"Well, I'm new in the neighborhood and I was just wanting to get to know a few of my neighbors."   
  
"Nice to meet you. My name is Patty, and this is Penny - my mother," she introduced while pointed to the lady that was standing in the door jam. It was clear that the two women had been disagreeing about something.   
  
"Kevin, nice to meet you too."   
  
* * *   
  
When Piper had been called to duty, she and Leo had been having a good morning get together in Piper's bedroom. Piper had promised to be back in a few minutes with two steaming hot cups of coffee, but it had been over an hour. Boy, that's a switch; usually it was Leo that did the disappearing act.   
  
Leo had heard the doorbell ring, and assumed that it was a visitor for Piper, so he sat waiting patiently. Eventually though, his patience turned to boredom and he decided to find a book to read from Piper's collection of literature.   
  
In the far corner of her room stood an antique looking bookshelf. One by one he inspected the titles and a few of the newer ones that seemed interesting he turned over and read the back cover. Finally, he decided that he and Piper didn't quite agree on what makes a good novel.   
  
As he replaced the last book that was in his hand he noticed a book that he had not looked at. There was no title on the side, but it was beautifully decorated. Out of curiosity he pulled the book out of its hiding place.   
  
Immediately he realized that the book was hollow, and it contained something inside. As he opened it he expected to find secret ingredients that the Charmed Ones used in their potions or a key to a lockbox or something, but instead he found another book.   
  
This book also had no title, and like the hollow book it was contained within, it was magnificently decorated with gold lines and circular shapes.   
  
"Hmmm?" he wondered as he opened the book about half way through. It was hand printed and was dated.   
  
Leo thought back to when he was married before World War II and remembered the diary that his wife wrote in every night. It resembled this book quite remarkably, though the handwriting was much different.   
  
"Should I do a little investigational reading?" Leo thought. "Why not. She's my wife, and what is hers is mine and what is mine is hers." Still the thought of reading Pipers personal thoughts extremely bothered him. "Of course she is a Charmed One, and I am responsible for the well-being of the Charmed Ones. So, if there is something wrong that she is scared to tell me about than this is a good way to find out." It was the only way he could rationalize this extreme type of invasion of privacy.   
  
Leo quickly put the hollow book back on the shelf where he found it, hoping that Piper wouldn't see that it had been bothered. He knew that he had to go somewhere he wouldn't be caught so easily, so he stood up and orbed into the attic. Hopefully they won't need to look in the Book of Shadows for a while.   
  
He flipped open the diary cover and started to do a little pleasure reading, but he soon realized that he was only getting part of the story. Maybe I should see if Phoebe and Prue have their own journals too, but I think I will do a little more reading first.   
  
September 23, 1998   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
I don't know what to do. Phoebe told me two weeks ago that she was leaving New York and moving back to San Francisco. I just don't know how to break the news to Prue. The two of them left in such bad terms that all I can see ahead in their future is fighting, and mine too I guess. Maybe some miracles will occur that will let us form a family. All I know is that I am going to need some magic if I want those two to act decent to each other. Well, at least there will be something interesting in our boring lives when she comes home.   
  
Grams' heath isn't doing much better. It goes further and further downhill each day, and she refuses to rest like the doctor has ordered. She's stubborn and that is all there is to it. I guess she's just like the rest of us.   
  
Grams is still trying to get me to quit my job at the bank and become a chief. She's right though, I do love to cook and bake. I just don't know though. It is such a risky business, and at least right now I have health benefits. I really can't afford to quit and find a new job right now. Grams' hospital bills are overwhelming, and they have to be paid.   
  
Maybe I can pursue my dream later on, hopefully anyway.   
  
Piper 


	2. Chapter 2

"Yes sir, I need one bedroom with two queen size beds, two weeks from this weekend. It will be for three people. If you have a room with a hide-a-bed that will be great. How much extra will that cost. Wow! That much! I guess that two of us could share a bed. Excuse me. If we get two doubles and a hide-a-bed it will be how much less than the queen and the hide a bed? Ahhh--did you say 30%? Okay. Let's do that. Yes. Yes. Okay. Thanks. I'll see you then. Oh, I'll be putting it on my credit card. Thanks. Goodbye." Piper spoke into the phone as if she were talking to one of her business contacts.   
  
"Oh, goody! Mickey and Minnie her I come!" Phoebe rejoiced.   
  
"I swear, you sound like a five year old about to get your birthday wish granted. Will you please act your age for once!" Prue looked at Phoebe as she entered the kitchen just in time to see Piper hang the phone up on the wall. "Is everything in order, sis?"   
  
"Yep. I think for once we got what we asked for. Everything should be ready when we arrive."   
  
"Tell me again why we are going to Disney Land?" Prue asked remember her protest to the choice of vacation that Phoebe had decided upon.   
  
"Because it is close and because Phoebe has been begging to go FOREVER! Anyway, I think it will do us some good to have some sister time without the wonderful interruptions of witch-hood life. Doesn't that sound good to you?"   
  
"It sounds like you just cursed our vacation? You know better than saying what you did."   
  
Piper looked at Prue for a second, trying to remember what she had said that was so bad. "What?"   
  
"You know, acting like we aren't going to have any supernatural problems while we're there."   
  
"Well, I sure hope that we don't. We have had enough of that type of difficulty hear over the last few weeks."   
  
Piper thought back on all the late night Book of Shadow study sessions that her and her sister had had. One was even interrupted by mad man. It seemed his only goal was to blow the three of them up with an energy blast. Luckily after Prue threw him down the attic stairway, Cole came out of Phoebe's bedroom and disposed of him. It wasn't the way that Phoebe approved of, but in a pinch she was glad that he was still able to use his demonic powers.   
  
"What's done is done." Prue tried to push the idea of being attacked again out of her mind. "Do we have good rooms?'   
  
"Well, we have a good room." Piper answered.   
  
"Don't tell me that I have to sleep with the kicking Phoebe? Ever since she took those martial arts class she seems to be practicing in her sleep."   
  
"I guess we could give her, her own bed."   
  
"What? And reward her for having a difficulty staying still? I don't know how Cole stands her!"   
  
"Will you guys quit talking to each other like I'm not here! I can hear every word you say. And by the way, I don't kick in my sleep."   
  
At the same moment Piper and Prue looked at Phoebe in shock. "You do too!" they said in unison, seeming to think it was unbelievable that she thought she didn't.   
  
Prue thought back to the first time she had to sleep with her wild-legged sister. Her mom and dad and sisters all went to a family reunion for her dad's side. Prue and Piper and Phoebe tried to sleep on the same full sized air mattress. Patty had insisted that Phoebe went in the middle so that she wouldn't roll off onto the ground. I guess that Patty was scared that the whole six inch drop would be two much for the little thing. Phoebe kicked and punched all night long. It was like she was being attacked in her dreams and that she was fighting back. By the time the night was over, both Piper and Prue were sleeping on the floor next to the air mattress, and Phoebe was sleeping diagonally across the mattress with her head on the end were her feet were when she fallen asleep.   
  
Since then the "Sleeping with Phoebe" threat was something used for the misbehaving child, though it was rare that they had to sleep together. That family reunion was the last time she had seen her Grandma Bennett. She died two weeks later, and Victor decided that the girls were too young to go to a funeral. That was the reason he told Patty, but Prue always suspected that it was because he didn't want the girls to see him cry.   
  
"Well, I don't like to be where I'm not wanted, and right now I don't feel wanted." Phoebe stood up from the chair she was sitting at next to the kitchen table and walked out the room not taking time to say goodbye to her rude sisters. "I don't have to stay to listen to that."   
  
Phoebe walked into the living room and headed toward the staircase. At least my room feels like my own home, she thought to herself as she reached out for the staircase.   
  
The room became dark. She could feel evil all around her. She was standing on the staircase looking at Piper and Prue, but something didn't seem right. There was a different presence in the room, one she had never felt before.   
  
The vision ended. She was still at the bottom of the staircase with her hand out reached touching the banister. What a strange object to cause a vision she thought.   
  
"Phoebe, I am sorry for what I said." Prue started, but as she did so she noticed the expression on her sisters face. "What's wrong? Did you have a--"   
  
Phoebe cut her off. She didn't want to talk to her sisters, and nothing really did happen in her vision that could help them in anyway. And what if she did tell them something, what would it be, 'I saw you and I had a strange feeling about it'? That would sound stupid, or sound like I was trying to get some attention other than 'you kick in your sleep'. Finally, she thought of something to get herself out of the sight of her sisters.   
  
"I have a headache. I'm going to go lie down." She ran up the stairs and to her room without waiting for a response. "The last thing I want to do is talk to them right now, anyway."   
  
She entered her room and sat down on the edge of her unmade bed. Boy, I can't believe that I didn't clean this room up today. She remembered that she had told Prue that she would. Her dirty clothes pile had consumed almost a quarter of the room. It was April and most of her time was being spent on college, and in her free moment she was fighting against the forces of evil. Who was she kidding, she spent most of her time working on her witch duties and in her free time she was really going to college.   
  
"Oh my, I promised them that I would get this done. I guess that tomorrow I will seriously get to work and clean this pig pin." It didn't look quite that bad, but if Prue got a new peek at the growing disaster she would say that it was even worse than what Phoebe thought of it.   
  
Phoebe sat, still on the edge of her bed, and rested her head in the palm of her hand. Even though it was meant as an excuse she really did have a headache, and it was getting worse as the moment passed.   
  
* * *   
  
"I know that there is a bottle of Tylenol in here somewhere. I saw it the other day. I guess it's behind the mirror."   
  
Phoebe looked around the upstairs bathroom that she shared with Prue. It was a pretty clean bathroom, but it was unorganized. She opened the cabinet door and reached in for the bottle labeled Tylenol. It was empty.   
  
"I sure hope I didn't do that." Phoebe picked up the bottle and threw it in the small trashcan that sat at the end of the sink and cabinet. "If I had and Prue needed it--" Phoebe thought but realized the consequences of that action were something that she didn't really want to think about.   
  
Maybe Piper will have some. As she walked into the bathroom that Piper used along with her husband Leo when he was allowed to stay with her she thought that maybe she should just ask her sisters where there was some, but she was still a little mad at the two witches she called sisters.   
  
As she opened the door, she realized that she was entering an organized neat room. If her sister was anything it was neat and organized. Suddenly she remembered her promise to Piper that she wouldn't enter the room without knocking. Somehow she had managed to walk in on Piper and Leo doing their marriage activities in the shower one too many times. Piper almost moved out of the house because of it, but Prue and Phoebe made a plan and agreed to give the newlyweds the largest bedroom in the house and their own private bathroom.   
  
Phoebe quickly stepped out of the bathroom and shut the door, lifted her hand and politely knocked on the bathroom door jam. Since no one answered, what a shock, she opened the door and let herself in. Phoebe looked around and headed toward the sink counter where the medicine cabinet was connected to the wall. She opened the mirror and was surprised to see a very large variety of bottles.   
  
"I didn't realize that Piper took so much medication." She looked at the bottles. Most of them were vitamins. She looked at the variety of a selection. Iron, Calcium, Folic Acid--that's a little strange, Saint John's Wart--okay, now my sister's depressed. Diet Pills--since when has that skinny girl needed to loose weight! Vitamin C, vitamin E, multivitamins, Aspirin, Tylenol--finally. As Phoebe picked up the box that they were in she uncovered another package. The box had been turned around to hide the name. Phoebe knocked it over to see the name on it.   
  
She couldn't believe her eyes. The box was new, and there was a prescription on it. The name was small but clearly was written on it was the name PIPER HALLIWELL. The last name was crossed out in pencil and next to it the name "Wyatt." Phoebe remembered Piper's hissy fits a few months earlier about not being allowed to use her "dead" husband's name.   
  
Phoebe looked the box over more closely. The words "PRENATAL VITAMINS" covered the top of the box. Phoebe reached in and picked up the box. The prescription had been written almost three months earlier.   
  
"Has she really been trying to--? I mean have they really been trying to have a--"   
  
Footfalls knocked heavily on the floor as someone walked down the upstairs hallway. Phoebe quickly put the box back and took the pair of pills she had taken from the bottle that was in the box and placed it back in front of the vitamins that it had been hiding.   
  
"Bang." The mirror door closed loudly, but Phoebe was already out of the bathroom door. Piper stood looking at Phoebe a few feet from the door Phoebe had just ran out of.   
  
"Something wrong?" Piper asked her panicking sister. "You don't look to well. I am sorry if I insulted you down there, but it is true that you used to kick, a lot, in you sleep."   
  
"I have a bit of a headache. I'm going to hit the sack. I'll see you tomorrow."   
  
"Leo just came in and I think that I will get to bed a little early tonight too."   
  
Phoebe fought not to insinuate something about why exactly the two of them were going to bed early, but she longed more to make a joke about what she had discovered in the bathroom. She was dying to know if there was another Halliwell on the way, but if there was Piper and Leo would make the announcement when they were ready.   
  
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Phoebe finally declared on her way passed her sister.   
  
"Don't worry. I don't think that's possible." Piper giggled at the thought of performing some of the weird things that her sister could get herself into. It was bad enough that she was a snoop in her spare time, but the latest in the category would be sleeping with a demon, which she knew was a demon, and loved him anyway.   
  
As Phoebe headed toward her room she could see her bedroom door open, by itself. She smiled, knowing that their was a hand turning the doorknob, and if it was the hand that she knew it was she was in for a night a wonderful as the one in store for Piper.   
  
The heck with this headache, she thought. She threw the pills in her mouth and swallowed. They stuck in her throat for a moment and she swallowed again before she ran threw the awaiting open door.   
  
"Hello sweetheart." His arms were what she needed. They engulfed her with warmth, and she knew that she was in for a night that she would never forget!   
  
* * *   
  
Luckily, Leo had replaced Piper's diary just before Piper walked over to write that day's entry in it. As soon as he put it away he orbed down to the basement.   
  
Leo stood, observing the mounds of work in the Prue's darkroom. After he had read the first entry he turned to that Piper had written he couldn't get his mind off of where Phoebe or Prue kept their book of most personal thoughts.   
  
Eventually Leo realized that the only real place that Prue had enough Privacy to write was her darkroom, because her sisters and Leo had made a promise not to enter until she said they could.   
  
Leo surveyed the room, trying to think of a logical place where the oldest Charmed One would hide something so sacred. There were so many places to hide things in the room, especially when lit by a red light, which was usually the only thing on when Prue and her sisters were in the room. Still, Leo knew that it was in there, somewhere.   
  
On a table was her bran new state of the art professional camera, which he knew she must have paid an arm and a leg for. She was furious when she had to fork out the money, especially since it was a demon that had caused the destruction of her prized position.   
  
In the corner of the room was a collection of chemicals, which Leo guessed were for developing film. Photography never was one of his strong points so as far as he knew they could have been mustard and ketchup bottles.   
  
Suddenly his eyes shifted and looked under the table. There sat another cameral bag. It wasn't nearly elegant as the first and there was a huge slash on the outer material layer.   
  
"That's strange. I wonder why she kept that old--" He knew the answer before he had even finished his own question. It was so obvious to him. "If you had two sisters who don't know anything about taking pictures and didn't care in the first place where else would you hide it?"   
  
Leo unzipped what was left of the zipper and sat down in the corner and started to read. Though the attitude was different than Piper's, it was just as informative.   
  
He only had a chance to read a single entry, as with Piper's, before he heard footsteps coming down the basement stairs. He quickly replaced the journal and orbed out of the room.   
  
"Anyone there?" Prue asked. "Because if there is you're going to be sorry." But there was no one there.   
  
September 25, 1998   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
How dare she invite that trader into our house! Piper had no right, and I don't care if Grams was for it. She betrayed us when she went to look for our long lost jerk of a father, and that is that.   
  
I should kick her out before she gets settled in. All we need is a leach in the house, who doesn't seem to understand the definition of work. She is trying to get on our good side by saying that she is going to go back to school, but I have heard that many times before.   
  
I give up!   
  
Prue 


	3. Chapter 3

Phoebe laid in her warm bed not wanting to forget the night before and even into the morning hours. She could almost picture the wonderful events that had unfolded. His embrace was so loving, she thought as she wrapped her arms around herself.   
  
"Why did he have to go so early? What was so important?" She relaxed again and realized that it had only been three hours since she had said good-bye to Cole, but to her every minute away from him seemed like an eternity.   
  
The wonderful memories ran through her head. She hadn't planned on seeing him, but as she was getting into bed he gave her a wonderful surprise. It wasn't often that she had the chance to be with him, well, at least lately it seemed that way.   
  
"Oh, I guess I should get up," Phoebe finally decided. "Time to hit the shower!"   
  
She stumbled out of bed she tripped over the shirt that Cole had been wearing the night before. It puzzled her at first, but when she saw that his pants were lying over a chair she started to giggle. What is he doing? Going to see the world barely dressed! She thought as she picked up his shirt off the floor and laid it on top of his pants. Maybe he just materialized something else to wear, she finally decided.   
  
As she left her room to head to the shower she could smell the most wonderful muffins. "Blueberry!" she said out loud in the excitement of knowing that her hunger pains were going to feed. I wonder why Piper got up so early this morning. I know she had to work late.   
  
She walked toward the bathroom, but quickly decided that the shower could wait. After all, if she waited to take a shower the muffins would be cold. With that excuse she turned around and ran down the stairs.   
  
When she rounded the bottom corner to the stairs she noticed that both Piper's and Prue's bags were gone. Strange. They must have taken them to their room, she thought a bit confused, but as she entered the kitchen she realized that she was mistaken.   
  
In front of the stove stood Cole. In his hands he held a hot pan of muffins. The kitchen was almost spotless, except for a brown paper bag that sat on the counter and a plate and cup of coffee that were placed at the table.   
  
As Phoebe looked at him she realized in shock what he was wearing, practically nothing! He was wearing only a pear of black, silk boxers. Oh, I wish I could take those off! She thought without thinking. Then she realized that her sisters were still in bed.   
  
"Good morning, beautiful," Cole said at the site of Phoebe in her red slip nightgown. "I was hoping that I wouldn't have to wait too long."   
  
"Is this why you left so early this morning? To cook me breakfast?" It wasn't something that Cole had ever done before, but it was sure sweet.   
  
"Why shouldn't I?"   
  
"I don't mean to sound ungrateful or rude, but what took you so long? You got up two hours ago, and all you made was a batch of blueberry muffins."   
  
"I'm not as gifted as you sister. I can't just make something from scratch."   
  
"So you went to the store and bought them already made and put them in the pan?"   
  
"Give me some credit, Phoebe. I made them from a box. I know that they can't be as good a Piper's, but I made them especially for you." As he looked at her he could feel his body longing to hold her again . . . the way he had held her the night before.   
  
"And what about the mess you made? Where is it?" She asked in a teasing tone.   
  
"A minute ago you asked me what took so long. I did have time to clean up."   
  
"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to sound the way that I did. Thank you. May I have one?" Cole handed her a muffin. The paper wrap that held it was extremely hot, and she dropped it to keep it from burning her hand. She looked at Cole. He was holding the pan that he had just taken from the oven. How can that not burn him, she thought, and then she remembered.   
  
Cole was a demon. She had met him when she working with Daryl, a San Francisco cop. He was using the cover as an assistant defense attorney to enter his way into the community, more that he was using it to enter his way into the lives of the Charmed Ones.   
  
he Charmed Ones were what Phoebe, Piper, and Prue were known as in their family, and among some other magical beings. They worked hard to end the torturous pain that evil inflicted upon the innocents of the world, and that was their job. Ever since the sister's great, great, great, great, great grandmother had moved to the New World their family had done their best to help those who were in need, and nothing had changed through the generations. They were determined to fight any evil force that came in the way of good, whether it be a warlock or a demon, but lately there was one exception to that rule: Cole.   
  
Cole was only half demon. His father had been a mortal until his mother killed him. When Cole first met the Charmed Ones his assignment was to kill them, and he was determined to do just that. On his quest to find a way to accomplish his goal he realized that Phoebe would be perfect way to do just that, that is until he fell in love with her. At first it was just an act, or so he claimed, but as time went by his heart belonged only to her. He finally had realized the wrongness of his demonic side and was trying to change. Sadly, he was caught, but luckily he escaped and had been hiding out with the sisters and in other planes ever since.   
  
Phoebe sat down at the table, and reached out for the muffin that she had dropped only seconds earlier. Again she felt the burning sensation on her skin, but this time she gently placed it on the table.   
  
"What's wrong? Aren't you hungry? You need the energy after last night, so you better eat-up." Cole smiled at her in a seductive manner. It was an expression that she saw often in his face, but only toward her.   
  
She held herself back as she had the erg to return to the activities of the night before, but she was in the kitchen and her sisters were home. She thought for a moment, if they weren't home would I'd--   
  
At that moment Cole reached out and placed his hand on her neck. His eyes were filled with love, wanting only what she wanted: to love her soul mate.   
  
Their lips met. He enveloped her mouth with his as he caressed her body. Her soft skin made his desire to be one with her so much stronger. As their embrace continued he reached up and touched her shoulder, slowly slipping the spaghetti strap to her nightgown down. "We can't," Phoebe said trying to prevent her sisters from walking in on the two. "What if Piper and Prue find us?"   
  
"Don't worry about them. They have already left. Piper needed to get groceries and Prue wanted to go shopping for--"   
  
Phoebe didn't give him time to finish talking. With the knowledge that her sisters were out of the house she returned his proposal. She slowly pushed him over against a wall as he again began to caress her body. They slid down onto the floor. It was something that Phoebe knew her sister's would kill her over, making out in the kitchen, but at this moment she didn't care.   
  
His arms were so welcoming, his touch was so gentle, and his kiss was so affectionate. If she hadn't seen his demonic side herself, she would never believe that this entity was evil. But to her he was the answer to her dreams. As he took off her nightgown she held her arms around him. She knew that she could never let go.   
  
It was in that moment that she heard it, a rustling sound in the front room. Don't worry about it. You're hearing things.   
  
Just then the door swung open.   
  
"What smells so good?" Prue asked as she walked into the kitchen. Just then she saw her sister and Cole. "My eyes, my eyes!"   
  
* * *   
  
"Nice to meet you Kevin. Would you like to come in?" Patty had a hard time not stumbling over the words as she invited the hansom stranger into her house.   
  
"Thank you. I thought you'd never ask."   
  
Patty could fill her heart start to pound. She suddenly realized that she was blushing. Calm down, before he thinks you're desperate. Wait a minute, I am. It had been a long time since she had had someone interested in her, and with the way that Kevin was smiling--he was interested.   
  
"Patty, can I have a word with you?" Grams motioned for her daughter to join her in the kitchen.   
  
"What is it this time, mother. I am getting tired of you thinking everyone of my friends is out to get me. What is your problem anyway?"   
  
"Patty, there are things that you just don't understand."   
  
"Then explain them to me, Mother."   
  
"It is neither the time nor the place."   
  
"Well, when you decide that it is the right time and right place I might decide to listen to you and hope that you have a sane reason to complain about the people I hang around with. Until then, I have to go back into the living room."   
  
"But Patty--"   
  
"Kill it Mom."   
  
"What did you say, young lady."   
  
"I said kill it Mom!"   
  
* * *   
  
"Phoebe! What do you think you are doing?" Prue yelled.   
  
"What's all the--" Piper began. As she knocked Prue aside with the edge of the kitchen door and saw the scene on the kitchen floor, she covered up her eyes dropping the bags that she had been holding. The breaking of glass as it crashed against the floor distracted the two lovebirds. "Phoebe! Have you ever heard of a bed?"   
  
"More importantly, a bedroom!"   
  
Phoebe didn't care about her sisters' interruption and all she could manage to do was giggle, but luckily Cole could do a little more.   
  
Phoebe felt her body alter. She felt almost as if she was changing shape, but then it was over. She looked up to see what had happened, and she was no longer in plane sight of her sisters in the kitchen.   
  
As she laid in her bed, thankful that Cole still was able to shimmer, she began to hold him closer. He covered her mouth with his, and ran his arms down her naked body. She was so thankful that he still had his powers or she would still be downstairs trying to explain herself to her sisters, even though that was something she knew she wouldn't be able to avoid when she saw them again.   
  
Cole had wanted to completely rid himself of the temptations of the dark side, but so far it hadn't been done.   
  
There are good and bad sides to his powers Phoebe thought, and by shimmering Cole could attract those he was hiding from, and that was definitely a bad side. But right now, being in Cole's arms, against his warm body, she sure knew that there were good sides to his evil powers.   
  
Often Cole would help the Charmed Ones in their efforts to attack those he once worked with, and because of this help, he had slowly earned the trust of Phoebe's sister. Unfortunately, the trust was not complete.   
  
Phoebe looked at Cole as she held him in her arms and realized that last night's adventure was repeating itself. She gazed at Cole's bare body and smiled. If only she could have him every night!   
  
"I love you, Phoebe."   
  
"I love you--" Phoebe started. When she saw the familiar blue orbs appear in the corner of the room she grabbed her down comforter and covered Cole and herself up as quickly as possible.   
  
As Leo appeared in the room, he realized the intimate intrusion he had just made. "Sorry," he said, "but this is important!"   
  
"What is this place? Grand Central Station!" Phoebe yelled desperately disappointed that her second day in heaven would have to wait.   
  
* * *   
  
  
Prue turned to run upstairs after her sister, but Piper held her back.   
  
"She just can't get away that easily!"   
  
"Let her go. You know if we go barging in her room, we are just going to see what we saw a minute ago."   
  
Shivers went threw her body. Seeing her on the kitchen floor doing the wild thing wasn't something that she wanted to see twice in the same morning.   
  
"What did she think she was doing?" Prue asked Piper. "I will never think of this room in the same way! Ever!"   
  
"Are you trying to tell me that you have already forgotten your make out session with Mitchell in here?" Piper looked around the kitchen at the clothes that were draped over the counter. "As I recall you about left me on Mt. Olympus, so you could enjoy yourself!"   
  
Piper bent over and started to pickup the broken groceries that were all over the floor.   
  
Prue blushed as she continued. "I was also under a spell at the time, by a servant of Hades himself."   
  
"Excuses, excuses! And by the way, it wasn't Hades himself. It was Hates' son. Throw me the paper towels, will you?"   
  
It had been a while since Prue had even thought of that horrible situation. She had met Mitchell when she had been offered the cover of the magazine that she worked at. When she was at the library doing research she met this man, who at the time, she fell deadly in love with. After a long ordeal and being sent to Hades when Phoebe's boyfriend, who ended up being the prince of Hades, brought a camera for her to use to shot an old fashion looking cover. It ended up that Phoebe's boyfriend wanted Phoebe as his wife so that his father would let him stay in Hades, and Mitchell, well he had made a deal with the Devil. In trade for a great job, Mitchell agreed to do the Prince's dirty work.   
  
Piper decided to go to see Zeus to save Phoebe, and the Prince sent Mitchell to see Prue so he could distract her and keep her from bringing Piper back at sunset, the only time it was possible. Thanks to the spell that Mitchell had put on his kisses Prue failed, until she turned back time and was able to retrieve Piper. Luckily, Zeus granted Phoebe's safe return, as long as she hadn't eaten anything in Hades, which luckily she hadn't.   
  
Prue was lucky that day. Thanks to Mitchell's pride, she wasn't only able to save her sister, but she was able to break the deal that was made. And in the end, Nickos, the prince of Hades, was sent to live a mortal life on earth.   
  
"I see your point," Prue continued to Piper as she threw the roll of towels across the room. "But still, there are other places to--well you know."   
  
"I know, and I agree, but let her have her fun. I mean who knows when she is going to have to say good-bye forever."   
  
"Piper, Prue. We need to talk! We have a problem!" Phoebe yelled as she ran down the stairway in her sister's robe.   
  
"We sure--" They started to say in unison until they realized that Leo was following her with Cole following close behind with Phoebe's comforter wrapped around him like a big heavy robe.   
  
Piper's and Prue's eyes were wide. Piper looked as if she was trying to hold back from laughing, but Prue looked mad.   
  
"New style in togas this year?" Piper asked Cole.   
  
"What?" he responded.   
  
Piper pointed to the outfit that Phoebe's usually properly dressed demon was wearing, or more accurately, was wearing him.   
  
"Never mind that! Why are you wearing my robe?" Prue budded in. "What happened to yours?"   
  
"I believe that you took mine last night. Remember? You walked in my room and didn't realized that Cole and I were in there and you grabbed it to hide your eyes."   
  
"But how did you get my robe! If you went through the trouble of going to my room, why didn't you just get yours?" Prue snapped back, her temper getting shorter and shorter as the conversation went on.   
  
Leo looked at Prue with guilty eyes. "That would be my fault. She said it was in your room and I grabbed the wrong one."   
  
"We have a problem," Phoebe began again, hoping that this time they would stay on the subject. "But he won't tell me what it is!" She was pointing to Leo with a glair that her sisters easily saw. The sisters joined in.   
  
"What is the problem?"   
  
"I--I can't--tell you," he responded and orbed out in order to escape the girls inquires.   
  
* * *   
  
They'll never find me in here, Leo thought as he materialized in Phoebe's room. They probably went to Piper's room and saw that I wasn't there and gave up, for a while anyway.   
  
Leo sat down on Phoebe's bed, laid back and closed his eyes. It lasted only a moment when he realized that there was still one diary to be found.   
  
"I wonder where she keeps it?" he said out loud and then suddenly remembered that he was hiding. Any slight move in this old Victorian house, no matter how good of condition it is in, can cause loud creeks.   
  
I wonder where Phoebe would keep a diary if she has one. Still lying on Phoebe's bed Leo thought back to his childhood and to the places that his little sister kept her diary.   
  
"Under the mattress," he said but this time in a whisper. He stuck his hand underneath the mattress and sure enough on the first try he found it.   
  
"That girl is too predictable."   
  
September 29, 1998   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
I give up. I know that I have said it before, but this time I am serious! This was one of the biggest mistakes that I have ever made, and you know that I have made quite a few (whose joking--I have made a ton of them).   
  
I just felt so unloved out there. Everyone that I have ever cared for lives in California, and for some reason I thought that they would love me too.   
  
I went out there looking for Dad, and all I found was loneliness. I thought it would be so different here, but I was so wrong.   
  
If I had the money I would turn around and go back, but I just don't. If I had the money I would just pay Prue off to get her my back! But like always I have to depend on my sisters to save my butt.   
  
Phoebe 


	4. Chapter 4

"Sorry to keep you waiting Kevin," Patty spoke as she walked out of the kitchen against her mother's wishes.   
  
"That's okay. What did your mother want, if you don't mind me asking?"   
  
"Oh, she is just paranoid. She just doesn't want me to have friends."   
  
"Well, I am honored."   
  
"What?"   
  
"I am honored that you consider me your friend." The two smiled at each other in a teenagerish form of flirtation.   
  
Kevin looked at the corner of the room and noticed an open backpack leaning against the wall. "High School Chemistry and Honors Algebra II! Boy, you must either love learning or your crazy.""   
  
Patty saw what he was talking about. "Oh, a little of both I guess, and luckily there are only three more days of it. I can't wait until I am official out of school. Well, at least high school. My mom has the idea that I am going to go on to college or something."   
  
"Don't you want to go on to college? You know women even go to Universities now."   
  
"I know, but I would rather have a family to raise. I guess I have to wait for the right guy though."   
  
"Hard to have a family without one."   
  
"You can't be telling me that you don't have a boyfriend."   
  
"Well, I did a few weeks ago, but we broke up."   
  
"What was his name?"   
  
"Victor. Victor Bennett."   
  
"What caused you to break up with your high school sweetheart?"   
  
"I don't know. I guess the stress of our senior year got to us," Patty said as she fought back the tears that were forming in her eyes.   
  
"That's too bad."   
  
"So what high school did you go to?" Patty quickly attempted to change the subject.   
  
"Oh, I just moved here. My family is from back east." It was the truth, sort of. He had just moved here, though it was from a different time not a different place, and his family was originally from the east coast, though it was a few centuries ago.   
  
"My family was originally from back east too. Massachusetts I think."   
  
"Well, it looks like we have something in common."   
  
"We'll have to wait until next time to talk about them. I was just on my way to my graduation rehearsal when I saw you walking. Do you think that we could see each other again?"   
  
"A forward lady, I like that. Sure. Would you like to go to the movies, and of course it is my treat."   
  
"I would love to. But I think that I need to wait until finals are over. I graduate Thursday night, so how about planning it for Friday?"   
  
"Sounds great. Would you mind if I came to your graduation?"   
  
"I don't mind, but I am not sure about the woman in the other room."   
  
"I understand. Come at your own risk."   
  
"You got it."   
  
"I'll see you there, and I'll see you here Friday at 6. We'll go out to dinner first, so do eat too much before hand."   
  
They smiled and Kevin walked out the front door and headed away from the house using the sidewalk.   
  
Patty came out a few minutes later when she saw her friend pull up to give her a ride to the high school.   
  
Patty could barely keep the secret. She had a date and there was nothing that her mother could do to keep her from it.   
  
* * *   
  
"What do you mean that you can't tell us?" Prue blurted out. "Why in the world did you come here and tell Phoebe something was wrong and then tell us that you can't tell us?"   
  
Leo stood still, steering at his family. What can I say? Why did I come here in the first place? I love them. That's why. But if I tell them what I know it will pollute the timeline even more than it already is. Of course it was something that they did that started this. "First, tell me what happened yesterday."   
  
"What does that have to do with this?"   
  
"Everything."   
  
"We vanquished a warlock," Phoebe blurted out.   
  
"Try again," Piper joked. "More like we helped a warlock complete some sort of plan he had."   
  
"Well, your right about that. You helped a very dangerous demon, and he is about to cause a lot of trouble for you." Leo knew that he couldn't just blurt out everything, but the girls wouldn't stop until they had something to work with. I can't think of anything to say. I tell witches bad news everyday. Come on say something, anything. Leo thought to himself as the Charmed Ones looked at him wondering what he was up to.   
  
"And what was so secretive about that, that you thought you couldn't tell us?" Piper responded.   
  
"Well, there is more to it, but I can't really say much more. Not because you can't know, but because I don't exactly know." Leo said to his wife. He hated lying to her, but he had no choice. And it wasn't a complete lie. He really didn't know the whole story. Not yet anyway. Why did he have to go and tell Phoebe that something was wrong? Something was wrong, but he didn't know whom to trust. I sure wish that that part sunk in before I just started shooting off warnings!   
  
"So why did you tell us anyway?" Phoebe asked.   
  
Boy, can she read minds? Leo thought inside. "I knew you wouldn't give up if I didn't." This lie has gone on long enough! I need to orb out, and orb out now! With that Leo left the company of the sisters. I have to think up a plan, and a good one.   
  
"What was that about?" Piper asked.   
  
"I don't know, but it is time to go to the attic and look in the Book of Shadows," Phoebe responded.   
  
The sisters went to the attic to consult their family treasure. The Book of Shadows was a book that Phoebe had found in the attic, with the guidance of the spirit of her mother. It had been in the family for generations and was a book of magic knowledge from the witches in her line that had practiced before her. It contained information on all types of magic and evil, well ways to fight different types of evil.   
  
The girls thumbed through the pages. Two hours later and after calling Leo, the sisters' Whitelighter or Guardian Angel, numerous times--who for some reason never answered--the girls were no more informed than they were when they began.   
  
"Maybe he's just busy with another charge," Piper suggested.  
  
"Maybe he's avoiding us!" Phoebe suggested with an irritation in her voice remembering the activity she was involved with when the wonderful danger alert occurred. "I don't think that there was anything wrong at all. I think he is trying to stop Cole and me from having a relationship!" Phoebe turned around and walked down the stairs.   
  
"Sometimes I wonder if it is such a good idea myself," Piper muttered.   
  
"I heard that! Thanks for the support!"   
  
"It just doesn't make any sense. Why worn us about something and then leave acting like it wasn't anything important?" Prue thought for a moment. "Unless he totally made it up."   
  
"Really! What made you think of that?" Piper said sarcastically.   
  
"No need to get--" Prue started.   
  
Suddenly the pages of the Book of Shadows began to flip back and forth wildly. Finally, they laid still. Prue stood up and walked over to see the page that someone desperately wanted them to see.   
  
"It is titled 'To tell the truth'," Prue told Piper. "But there is a note that it doesn't work on Whitelighters."   
  
"Shucks!" Phoebe blurted out.   
  
"Phoebe!" Prue reprimanded.   
  
"What? I bet you were thinking the exact same thing."   
  
"You know she right. He's the only person who knows what we need to know. What good is it going to do us?" Piper seemed good at stating the obvious today.   
  
"Well, actually the rest of his Whitelighter friends and the Elders know. Oh, but I guess it wouldn't work on them either." Phoebe set back in the old chair that she had claimed when their study session begun.   
  
Prue began to read the spell. Even if it wasn't any help, there was something on this page that they were suppose to know. There always was. Somewhere and somehow there was something.   
  
The truth I seek   
For you to speak   
Of things not told   
Of secrets so old   
From days of your youth   
Reveal to me the truth   
  
"There is another note here, though. It's a warning, I think," Prue continued.   
  
"Well, read it then." Piper's nerves were already fried, and all the stalling her sister was doing seemed to make them sort out even more. "Just read the stupid thing. Okay!"   
  
Each witch may use this spell once between each full moon. It will not work on the night of a full moon. Simply look into the person's eyes and say the spell. After you ask your question snap your fingers once or clap your hands once and the spell is over. They won't remember the questions that you asked, nor the time you spent doing so. It will seem as if nothing has happened.   
  
"At least we can use it three times. I mean since each witch can use it once every month." Prue looked at Piper hoping that she had cheered her spirits up. She hadn't. "Well, it looks like another wonderful event goes by the monthly calendar."   
  
Piper couldn't help but giggle.   
  
"Enough girl jokes. I think we have something more important to think about." Phoebe sat in her chair worrying. She knew that she had been the one responsible for helping the warlock and there was nothing she could do about it. With all the work that they had done today all they had found was a stupid truth spell.   
  
"I just wish that I knew what to ask," Prue said trying to get back to the subject.   
  
"Well, we have a more important problem first," Piper said.   
  
"What's that?" Prue responded.   
  
"Who do we ask?" Piper asked. "Who are we suppose to ask?"   
  
* * *   
  
"Michael Ingalls," the man announced. A young man stood up and walked on the stage and collected his diploma.   
  
"Sandy Hall," the man announced. A young lady with red hair stood up and started to walk toward the stage when a guy in the second row flipped up her robe. How did he know? She had nothing on under her robe. Not panty hose, not a slip, and definitely not any underwear!   
  
The entire audience gasped and then started to laugh. She quickly pushed the bottom of the robe down to cover her bare body.   
  
"I can't believe you did that! I trusted you!"   
  
"I can't believe you were stupid enough to do it."   
  
A few teachers fought to keep a strait face while they escorted her out of the stadium.   
  
The announcer decided that he better try to salvage the rest of the event.   
  
"Patty Halliwell." Patty stood up and started to walk down to the stage. As she reached the second row she stepped aside of Matt, the guy who had moments ago embarrassed her friend.   
  
"Let's see you do better than that." The guy whispered. Patty wasn't about ready to let him expose her to the entire class. Why had Sandy told him anyway? It was suppose to be their little secret, something that they could tell at their class reunions, and not in the front page of the local new paper. Who knows? Maybe he didn't know that they did the stunt together.   
  
As Patty started to pass Matt he reached out and gave a giant tug to her robe, not letting go and falling to the floor while still pulling. These things are sure cheep she thought as the material ripped at the shoulders and fell off of her. She put her hand up in front of her, trying to push back the teacher that she knew would be coming after her in a moment. "Stop!" she yelled as she shut her eyes.   
  
The noise that had started to refill the auditorium fell quiet. No one touched her. She opened her eyes and looked around the room. No one was moving. They were all frozen in place, everyone that is except Penny, her mom. Penny ran down the isle were she sat watching her daughter's prank, and her daughter's powers begin to work. Penny didn't quite understand why they had started already, but she had an idea.   
  
"Hurry, grab your things and run--but not until they start moving again."   
  
The room lit up again with life and Patty held the material close to her body. She gathered her things and ran toward the doors. No one tried to stop her.   
  
When they got out of the auditorium, Patty looked at her Mom. "What just happened?"   
  
"You don't know. I thought for sure you had read the incantation and--" Penny stopped realizing that there was a few young children looking at her from across the foyer. "Let's get home and then we'll talk about it. Okay."   
  
"I'm sorry Mom."   
  
"For what?"   
  
"For embarrassing you."   
  
"Don't worry. You're not the first, and you won't be the last Halliwell who's proud of their body and have reason to be. I just wish I knew what possesses us to show everyone."   
  
"I love you, Mom."   
  
"I love you, too."   
  
November 3, 1998   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
I just can't decide. Do I like him because Phoebe likes him, or do I really like him? I wonder if there could be another bad reason that I like him. It isn't like he has a job that is high-tech. I mean he's a handyman, and not a Lawyer--so it's obvious I don't like him for his money (especially since most of his money is what I pay him to fix this old house).   
  
There is just something about him that I can't resist. His smile is so welcoming, and his embrace is the warmest I have ever felt. Still, I need to get to know him a lot better, before I make any firm decision.   
  
I still don't know what I should do. Phoebe is having a hard enough time getting readjusted to things around here. Do I really want to make it worse?   
  
I wish I knew what the right thing to do is. I just wish that I knew. But right now, I think I like him because of who he is inside. I hope so anyway.   
  
Piper   
  
November 3, 1998   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
For the fist time in my life I feel guilty. I know that Piper loves, well at least likes, Leo and all I am doing is causing trouble.   
  
I do like the guy, but not in the way that Piper does. Truthfully, the only reason I am sticking to this game is because I want to win. I guess that really isn't too fair.   
  
I just want a relationship that makes me feel like a real person, but it is hard to have that when the object of my affection doesn't feel the same way.   
  
I guess there is only one thing to do. Let Piper have her way. It is what she deserves.   
  
Phoebe 


	5. Chapter 5

The door swung open, and Phoebe stood in the door jam looking at her hansom man.   
  
"Sorry about that," she began. "I think that Leo sent us on a wild goose chase."   
  
"I thought you were helping your sisters."   
  
"I gave up, but they are still up there going in circles. I swear they need to learn that sometimes you just have to take a break."   
  
Cole sat in silence. He didn't want to get involved in what was turning out to be a sisterly affair. After all Phoebe looked like she had already gone threw enough worrying about her wonderful new spell already.   
  
"Why don't we start where we left off?" Phoebe gazed into Cole's eyes. She felt her body become overwhelmed with emotion. The effect that Cole had over her was amazing. She sat down on his lap and looked into his eyes. The demon she had fallen in love with had so much power over her, but when it came to matters of bad and good she knew what was right.   
  
Her arms longed to touch him. Slowly she knelled down onto her bed and reached up to place her hands on his face, and then she was overcome with panic. Suddenly a vision appeared to her.   
  
She stood on the stairway looking at her sisters who were in the front room. They were yelling at her. She felt unwanted and unloved, the way that she had felt before the bond of the Power of Three had become what it was today. She ran up to her room. It wasn't hers. Someone else had taken her place in her family. She ran back to the stairway and Piper and Prue and someone else pulled her down the stairs and pushed her out the front door. She fell down the stairs and looked up in time to see the large wooden front doors slam shut.   
  
Then as quickly as it had begun, it ended. She looked up at Cole fighting back the headache that her visions often caused.   
  
"What's wrong?" he asked concerned.   
  
"I don't know, but something is wrong, really wrong."   
  
* * *   
  
"There is no one to use this spell on! Give it up!" Prue yelled at Piper. "I don't know what she was thinking, whoever led us to this spell, but we have no use for it!"   
  
"They are never wrong," Piper snapped back. "If they showed it to us it was for a reason."   
  
"I don't care! We have been up here for hours and I am tired. We don't even know what we are looking for. This is just a waste of time."   
  
"Leo wouldn't waist our time like this. There has to be a reason." She looked at Prue with the eyes of someone deeply in love.   
  
Leo and her had a relationship that was strong. Leo often was away from Piper for long periods of time, but she would never loose the love that she had for him.   
  
"Let's go find Phoebe and find something to eat." Piper finally decided.   
  
"Are you sure that we want to bust in on Phoebe again?" Prue asked Piper trying to hold her laughter back.   
  
"I see your point," Piper answered. "I think she'll join us if she gets hungry. Lets go. I'll cook."   
  
They left the attic, leaving the Book of Shadows on the floor. It was still opened to the page that contained the spell to tell the truth.   
  
Patty's spirit lingered in the room. She had tried so hard to help her daughters reach the answer that they were seeking. She couldn't tell them what they sought, but she could give them clues.   
  
In the girls rush to find the answer they had overlooked the true message that had been sent to them. When the book had stood still, it was opened to the spell that they had read, but if they had looked further they might have understood the real message they had been sent.   
  
The Charmed Ones, Sisters, Three   
Each will be the strongest a witch they can be   
Place them together and join the power   
Always increasing with every passing hour   
So often sought through evil's hand   
But never succumb to the devil's land   
The first three born shall always be   
The ones who set the innocence free.   
  
The page glowed. The knowledge it contained was so great. If only the sisters had seen it. If only they had know what was going on. The page brightened until looking at it was unbearable. But it was still to soon, they wouldn't have understood.   
  
Suddenly the page went dark. The words, one by one, started to disappear. The book was changing. Everyone was unaware of the devastation that was about to accrue. If only the Charmed Ones knew what this really meant. If only they knew what was ahead in their future. If only they knew that they one of them wasn't going to be one of the first three born.   
  
Phoebe, what is it?" Cole asked concerned.   
  
She looked up at him. Tears filled her eyes. She couldn't bare the thought that she may try to harm the ones she loved the most.   
  
"I don't understand," Phoebe was finally able to mutter. "It just didn't seem right."   
  
"What didn't seem right?" Cole always tried to understand what she went through when she had her visions, but it was something he knew that he would have to experience to comprehend.   
  
Phoebe sat on the edge of her unmade bed. She didn't know what to think of the experience she had just had. She looked up into the eyes of her lover that was still seated next to her. A tear slowly rolled down her cheek.   
  
"They don't love me. I mean they didn't love me."   
  
"Who didn't? I love you and that isn't going to change. You sisters love you and--"   
  
"But they didn't. They had replaced me."   
  
"Replaced you? With who?"   
  
"I don't know, but I think that I better keep this quite. Maybe it was just a false alarm." Phoebe new better than what she had just said. She had never had a 'false alarm' before, but she prayed that it was. Her visions often didn't come true because she or her sisters did something to stop the events from ever occurring. That had to be it. It was something that was supposed to occur along time ago. Maybe Prue was planning on getting a roommate before Phoebe moved back, and if she had and Phoebe had come home afterwards maybe she wouldn't be welcome.   
  
Phoebe didn't like the ideas of either event. But still, she knew that it wasn't possible. Of course in a witches life, anything is possible.   
  
* * *   
  
Carissa paced the floor of the room she had claimed in the underworld. It wasn't what she would have called a home in the world she had been raised in, but she had to live with it.   
  
Kevin had been told to leave messages in an old cave not too far out of San Francisco, and he hadn't. Maybe he hasn't had a chance. More like he forgot to. Or he has been caught. How could he be caught? It isn't like he has any powers--well not anymore. When he had dropped the potion on the ground in order to go back in time, he had also lost his powers. It was part of the plan.   
  
Carissa knew that the witches that she was going to be dealing with were powerful. It was possible to sense the power inside of a body, whether good or bad, and this way the treat wasn't there.  
  
But still, why hadn't he sent a message. They had worked so hard to find a way that both of them could communicate with each other by way of writing. He would place the letter in the cave in a plastic container to preserve it and she would retrieve it. Kevin had even gone into the cave and found a place behind a boulder to hide the notes. That way a curious traveler couldn't find it.   
  
Carissa, who was able to travel to different time periods as long as it was the same month and day, would just go back in time and place the note in the same place in the cave before Kevin had been there. When he went to retrieve the note, it would be from the future, though it would be an answer the note that he wrote to his sister in the past.   
  
"I guess no news is good news."   
  
Carissa walked over to her table and looked into the crystal ball that was sitting on it. The crystal ball was Carissa's window into the lives of the Charmed Ones, but she had to be lucky to see something. There were many powers protecting the house, and unless the girls were outside she couldn't see anything.   
  
This time she was lucky. She could see Phoebe in the back yard with a blond headed man. She was saying something about a vision.   
  
Carissa sat down in the chair. She hadn't thought about the possibility of the Charmed Ones' powers running her plan. She had to stop Phoebe's ability to inform others now, before it was too late.   
  
The message of the past and future is clear   
But it will stay in the mind of the seer.   
Any word to another won't any cause gain   
For it will be the beginning of endless pain.   
A sleep of death she then partakes   
And will not remember the vision when she awakes.   
  
December 22, 1999   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
I know how important my power is for this world, but still the only thing I want for Christmas this year is to be able to forget about my powers. They torment me when I want to be a normal person, and when I need them they seem to have vanished.   
  
I still don't understand why I was the one who had to have the inactive power. What good am I when problems arrive and I don't have a way to fight like Prue and Piper do? Someday, maybe, my powers will grow. Of course I may like the new powers just as much as the old.   
  
Phoebe 


	6. Chapter 6

"Mom what happened in there? Why did everyone freeze?"   
  
"That must be your power Patty. You are able to free people. It is about time that you find out."   
  
"I am able to do what!"   
  
"Patty, you're a witch. I am not sure why your powers were activated without the incantation, but the fact it that they--"   
  
"Mom, what exactly would cause my powers to be activated?"   
  
"There is an incantation--a spell."   
  
"In that big book in the attic?"   
  
"How did you get up there? The door is locked."   
  
"I went in last night. The door was wide open."   
  
Penny thought back to here activities the night before. She had been looking through the Book of Shadows in the attic and the doorbell rang. Penny had been waiting for a package so she ran down to answer the door in hopes that it had finally arrived. When she swung the door open there was no one in site, but an envelope sat on the stairs.   
  
"Oh, I forgot. I left it open when I went to the door, but I thought you were asleep."   
  
"What came?"   
  
"This." Penny picked up a sealed envelope and handed it to Patty. "Sorry, I saw it was addressed to you but with everything that was going on today I forgot about it."   
  
Patty stuck the envelope in her shirt pocket.   
  
"Patty, I need to know what you did up there."   
  
"I just looked at the book that was on the pedestal. There was a neat poem on the page and I read it. I don't even remember what it was about. I heard you coming and I decided to leave before you caught me."   
  
"Good thing you did. I would have been very upset."   
  
"But you not now?"   
  
"The situation has changed, and now you have every right to be up there as I do. You're a witch. It is about time that you learn your secret heritage."   
  
"And the rest of our family?"   
  
"As far back as I can remember. Malinda Warren was the first American witch in our family, and she was burned at the stake. The Book of Shadows tells a lot about her"   
  
"The Book of what?"   
  
"The book that you were looking at the other night. It is called the Book of Shadows. It is a witch's greatest tool. It has been added to by every witch in our family line."   
  
"Sort of like a diary."   
  
"Actually, yes."   
  
"Why don't we go and look at it, and find out what exactly you read."   
  
* * *   
  
Phoebe's vision haunted her all day. She knew that whatever she saw was impossible, but still her visions were serious.   
  
She sat down on her bed. At least it was still her bed last time she checked. The thought of her vision coming true was one of her greatest fears, and Phoebe didn't have many.   
  
Maybe I should ask Piper. I guess could go and see if there are any signs of my vision coming true. It couldn't hurt.   
  
Phoebe walked over to her door and put her hand on the doorknob. She turned and took a last look at her room. It might be the last time that this is actually mine. Quit it, Phoebe! There is no way that it is going to happen. Maybe I should tell them, just so it won't.   
  
Phoebe walked down the hall looking the all the open doors. It looked like she was the only one who had gone to be early.   
  
As she started down the stairs she placed her hand on the railing.   
  
She stood in the front room with her two sisters. Her sisters were yelling and glaring at her. She could feel the anger in their voices. Then suddenly a dagger fell out of someone's waistband and on to the floor. A hand reached out and picked it up. They aimed it toward her body and prepared attacked.   
  
Phoebe could see herself lying on the floor next to were Prue and Piper where standing. A pool of blood was forming on the floor. Phoebe, almost unconscious, struggled for every breath of air, but there was no hope.   
  
Then the vision ended. Okay, now there is something that I have to tell my sisters. This one can't wait. The thought of her two sisters dead was even worse than having her two sisters disown her. I have to tell them now. I have to tell them everything.   
  
* * *   
  
Piper sat on the stairs that led to the front door of the Victorian manor that the Halliwell sisters called home. It had been left to them in the grandmother's Will. Grams had died a few years ago of a heart attack. Thanks to her work getting the sisters together, the bond that they had been lacking previously in their life was able to form.   
  
Seeing Leo was such a wonderful thing. It happened so infrequently. It seemed like the higher powers that worked in their magical lives didn't understand how lonely a mortal witch can get. I wish that they would understand that we need time together. It was a dream that she had often ever since she had met her Whitelighter husband.   
  
The door slowly creaked open. Phoebe snuck her head out to see if she thought that she would be welcome.   
  
"Hello?" Phoebe looked at Piper, trying to see if her sister was going to be willing to talk. What she needed to share with her older sister was important, but sometimes sister matters ranked higher. Still she knew what their obligation was to. She and her sisters were dedicated to saving the innocence of those who lived in the world.   
  
"What do you want?" Phoebe could tell by the tone of her voice that she didn't want to talk.   
"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked, trying to improve her sister's mood.   
  
"Nothing that you would understand."   
  
"Try me."   
  
"You have the love of your life right inside that house, right inside your bedroom. It isn't like you have gone without seeing your soul mate for weeks."   
  
"Have you forgotten who you are talking to?" Phoebe looked at Piper remembering the extremely long periods of time that she had gone without Cole. A lot of those hours were spent wondering if he was still alive or not. So many times, it seemed that he had been caught and was gone for good. Oh well, it isn't a time to argue.   
  
"I know hon, but you knew what you were getting into when you married him."   
  
"I just didn't think it would be this hard. He leaves saying that he'll be back in a moment, and finally three days later he shows up just to say that he'll see me in a week! I did know what was going to happen when they finally let us be together, but at the time I was just thankful that I was going to be able to spend my life with the one person who I love and who loves me."   
  
"I hate to interrupt your self pity, but have you seen Prue? We need to talk about something important."   
  
"What? Did your love shimmer off to his old friends?" Piper looked mad. Phoebe knew she could had handled the situation a little differently, with a little more tact, but remember the site of seeing her sisters and herself lying on the floor dying in their own blood was the only thing that she could think about. "I think she is still in the attic looking for the demon that Leo was talking about."   
  
"We need to find her! NOW!"   
  
"The only way I am going to go back up in that attic is if something is about to--" At that moment Piper realized the stupidity of her question. Her sister must know something, and something important, or she wouldn't be throwing such a hissy fit. "What's wrong?"   
  
"I rather wait be with Prue first. This isn't something that I want to tell twice."   
  
"Is it that bad?"   
  
"You could say that!"   
  
* * *   
  
"This is the one." Patty had opened the large leather bound book and it opened to the page that she had read from the night before.   
  
"I need to see it." Penny motioned for her daughter to step aside. "I must have left the book open to this page when you came in."   
  
"Why were you looking at?"   
  
"Because I knew that it was time for you to inherited your powers, but I have been having a hard time telling you."   
  
"What's so hard about telling me?"   
  
"When a witches powers are activated they make themselves open to attack."   
  
"Attack from who?"   
  
"Demons."   
  
"Demons. My mother has officially gone crazy."   
  
"I'm serious."   
  
"So we are witches and our guy friends are warlocks."   
  
"No!!! Never be a friend with a warlock. They were witches, but they betrayed our creed. They are the enemy. All they want to do is kill witches and take their powers."   
  
"Take their--powers?"   
  
"Yes. Your power."   
  
"Oh, are you telling me that someone would kill me in order to be able to freeze people."   
  
"Yes, and there is another reason."   
  
"And what is that."   
  
"We are a very important family. Our family is a very dangerous one in the world of evil."   
  
"Why?"   
  
"Because your children are going to be the most powerful witches of all time."   
  
"How do you know that?"   
  
"I have always known."   
  
"When will I--"   
  
"Honey, that part of your life hasn't been written. You have to fall in love with someone first, and the children will come when the time is right."   
  
  
* * *   
  
The door flew open from the force that Phoebe placed on it with her leg. After her last vision she didn't want to trigger another one.   
  
Prue stood in the middle of the room reading a large, leather bound book. Her eyes quickly diverted from the Book of Shadows she had been steering at. Prue glared at the door and trough the objects she saw down the flight of stairs that led to the attic.   
  
"Hey!" Phoebe yelled back at her. "Don't you look to see who you are throwing across the room anymore?"   
  
"Since when do you kick the door open? I had no idea who you were. Are far as I knew you could have been Belthazore!"   
  
"Hey! What wrong with Cole?" Phoebe shot back.   
  
"Nothing when he is Cole. It is the Belthazore half that bothers me." Prue responded. "I hate to change the subject, but why are you guys back up here? Did you decide to go back to work on the wild goose chase?"   
  
"Well, I don't know. I do know that we are in trouble. Someone is going to--" Phoebe's eyes rolled back in her head. She began to sway and back and forth. Her head slumped to her chest, and she fell to the floor.   
  
"Phoebe? What's wrong?" Piper and Prue shook their sister, but still she didn't respond. There were only two things they could do. Either they could go to the hospital or call Leo, but in their line of work going to the hospital just wasn't a choice.   
  
"Leo! Leo! Help us!"   
  
February 14, 2000   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
It seems like my life isn't mine anymore, and that is all there is to it. I remember the days when I had freedom, when I made choices because they felt right, but now everything has changed.   
  
I spend my free time fighting off evil. I don't ever remember volunteering for this job, but the higher powers seem to believe that I did.   
  
All I want in life is to love Leo, the way that a man and woman should be able to do, but instead I am left playing hide and seek with him to make sure that no one finds out. It's Valentines Day for Heaven's sake! Lovers should be able to spend it together. But no! Not me and Leo. For some reason I thought that would different when we got married.   
  
Will it ever change? Will I be allowed to hold his hand in mine and call him my husband, or am I condemned to this childish behavior.   
  
All I want is happiness. Is that too much to ask?   
  
Piper 


	7. Chapter 7

"What's taking him so long?" Prue complained.   
  
"Leo! Leo! We need you now!" Piper yelled ignoring her bossing sister.   
  
As Leo orbed in Piper and Prue sighed in relief. "What's so important? It doesn't look like anything is wrong, and where's Phoebe. Should she be helping her? Don't tell me she ran off with Cole again and is ignoring her duties. I hope you have a good--"   
  
"Shut up!" Prue screamed. "Are you blind. And who are you to be complaining about someone not doing his or her duties! Phoebe is on the floor, in front of your feet. That is the emergency!"   
  
"Calm down, Prue," Piper said trying to defend her husband. "She's breathing."   
  
Prue looked down at Phoebe's chest and saw that it was moving as she breathed in and out.   
  
Leo bent down and placed her hand on his sister-in-law. "She's okay. It just seems like she is sleeping. What happened anyway?"   
  
"She said that she had a vision, and she started to tell us what had happened, and then she just collapsed . . . almost like she was having a seizure."   
  
They all looked at Phoebe. Her face was pale, and no matter what they tried to do to wake her, the effort failed.   
  
"We'll just have to wait until she wakes up." Leo finally advised the two sisters. "There is nothing else we can do."   
  
"I think that we should take her down to her bedroom and let her rest." Piper suggested.   
  
"I don't know if us picking her up is a good idea." Prue responded.   
  
"We won't have to. I'll orb her to her bed." Leo looked at the sister. Maybe they are right. What if something more serious had happened to Phoebe? Moving her wouldn't be such a wise thing to do. "Well, let's wait a little longer. Anyway, I think you should look in the Book of Shadows for something related to this."   
  
"I hope that you aren't making us waste our time again!" Prue looked at Leo with anger in his eyes. The guilt on Leo's face was evident, but he still didn't admit to anything.   
  
* * *   
  
"So let me see if I have got this right. I have the power to freeze people, and I can do it to anybody, when ever I please."   
  
"Well, there are a few rules. Your freezing power won't work on other witches.  
  
"Oh, why not?"  
  
Penny went on ignoring her daughters question.  
  
In using your magic you can harm only evil. If you use your magic to take another witch's power then you will become a warlock and be cursed to a life of evil. And the other rule is that you can't use your power for personal gain."   
  
"What happens if I do?"   
  
"Patty! There will be consequences if you do, but I expect more out of my little girl than that."   
  
"So what exactly counts as personal gain?"   
  
"Oh, freezing the guards at the bank so you could get the money."   
  
"That's a little extreme don't you think."   
  
"Well, it was the only thing that I could think of in a moments notice. But Patty there are some things I want you to read before you start using your power."   
  
"What's that?"   
  
Penny reached out and grabbed the large book. "This." She handed it to her daughter whose mouth was now wide open.   
  
"You expect me to read this, all of this?"   
  
"I expect you to start. Open the front cover and learn about who you are. I am going to go downstairs and let you have some time alone to think."   
  
"How much should I read?"   
  
"You'll know when it's time to get me."   
  
"How?"   
  
"She'll explain it."   
  
"The book's a 'she'?'  
  
"You'll understand when your done."  
  
Penny pointed to the book that Patty held in her hands, then turned and started down the stairs.   
  
* * *   
  
"How's she doing," Prue asked Piper as she ran down the stairs after checking up on Phoebe, who had suddenly awoken an hour after she fainted as if she had simple taken an afternoon nap. "Does she remember anything yet?"   
  
"No, she doesn't seem to even remember having a vision yesterday. It seems really weird. It's like it didn't even happen." Piper fell onto a couch in the living room. "I can barely keep my eyes open." The night had been hard on the sisters. They had taken turns staying up with Phoebe in case anything else happened, but nothing did.   
  
"So what did you do all night? I thought that you would have gotten a nap in there somewhere."   
  
"Actually, I knew that if I went to sleep I would have a horrible time getting up, so I just watched a lot of TV."   
  
"Anything interesting on?" Prue was just joking, but Piper was so tired she answered the question anyway.   
  
"Just something on women who have miscarriages and have a very hard time getting over it."   
  
"Sure is a serious show for so late at night." Prue continued joking.   
  
"I know, but it kept me awake. You know, I remember Grams telling me that Mom had a miscarriage once."   
  
"When did she have--?"   
  
"I don't remember when she told me about it."   
  
Prue looked at Piper. Boy, she really must be tired. I can't get her to understand a word I say. "I don't mean when did Grams tell you about it. I meant when did she have the miscarriage."   
  
"I don't know. I think Grams didn't either. Almost seems like she wasn't told about it until long after we three were born. I don't know though. She said that she had just found out that she was pregnant, and then she lost the child. Grams said that it felt like a precious gift was stolen from her."   
  
"I think that if Grams would have know about it when it happened, she would have been very concerned about the Charmed Ones never existing."   
  
"I bet that had to do with why Mom kept it so secretive. I know that she waited until after all three of us were born before she said anything about it."   
  
"I wonder if there had been another child what powers would she have?" Prue asked her sister.   
  
"What makes you think that it would be a girl?"   
  
"When was the last time that there was a baby boy Halliwell? It's destined. You know that."   
  
"Well, do you mean, would the powers we have be distributed because of birth order?"   
  
"I don't know. I never really thought about why we have the powers we do."   
  
"It also could be that we were given powers that enhanced our personal strength." Piper was intrigued. "I sort of like that option more than the idea that if there had been another child between you and me then I might be lying in a bed upstairs trying to remember the vision I had that must have been too horrible to remember."   
  
"Do you think that is why she can't tell us?" Prue looked extremely concerned at the thought of what might be in their future.   
  
"I don't know. With some the visions that she has been able to remember that seemed to be at the max of horrific, I have a hard time believing that is the reason. I do think that it was bad, though. I mean usually when she wants to get us together to tell us her visions, it is because she doesn't want to have to remember it more than once."   
  
"Well Piper, your right about that. Phoebe does her best not to have to do anything twice."   
  
"Except making out with Cole."   
  
"Piper! I thought that we were done with that subject." Prue couldn't believe that her proper manner-minding sister was making a crude and rude joke.   
  
A loud noise came from the way of the stairs, and suddenly a body came flying down it and landed on the landing next to the bottom riser.   
  
"Phoebe! What are you doing out of bed!" Piper yelled concerned. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"   
  
"I don't understand why I have to be confined to my bed. I'm not a child anymore."   
  
"Phoebe . . . how many more times am I going to have to tell you what happened last night before you believe me? You need your rest."   
  
"I need my coffee! And I need to be let out of prison!"   
  
"Fine! If you want to collapse again, that's your business!"   
  
"Fine!" With that last word Phoebe walked past the sitting sisters and into the kitchen to have a cup of coffee.   
  
"I hope that she remembers what was so important that she needed to tell us. It really bothers me that she doesn't even remember a thing."   
  
The sound of breaking glass came from the kitchen. Without a moment of hesitation Prue and Piper jumped up and ran in the direction of the kitchen.   
  
Phoebe was standing steering at the coffee cup that laid in pieces on the hard floor. Her eyes were filled with water, and she not able to talk.   
  
"What happened in here? Phoebe! That was my new coffee cup!"   
  
"I'm glad to see that you have your priorities strait. I guess the new China is more important than your life." Phoebe began to sway. Her eyes closed, and she collapsed to the floor.   
  
"Not again!" Prue complained.   
  
"Leo!" Piper called.   
  
"I think she's faking it to get attention!" Prue claimed. "This is just plain stupid."   
  
Leo ran in the kitchen door. The girls looked at him confused. "Why didn't you orb?" Piper asked.   
  
"Because I was in the front room. I spent all night looking through the book --since you guys gave up so quickly. What is the matter with you? This is your sister we are talking about. And what do you mean that she is faking it?"   
  
"Don't mind her, Leo. She's just overworked. We all are." Piper was quite good when it came to make excuses for her sisters.   
  
"Phoebe?" The concern in Prue's eyes was evident. "Please wake up."   
  
Phoebe batted her eyes. The look of confusion overwhelmed her tired face. "What happened?"   
  
"You fainted again. Do you remember anything?"   
"Remember what?"   
  
"Whatever you thought was so important."   
  
"No. Nothing. Why?"   
  
"You said something about my life," Piper spoke up with a little hesitation in her voice.   
  
"I don't remember a thing."   
  
"She needs to go to bed." Leo looked up at his family from where he sat on the floor next to Phoebe. "There isn't anything else I can do."   
  
* * *   
  
Leo stood in the mausoleum. He remembered that Phoebe often came here to find Cole. He wasn't at the house since Prue had yelled at him so she could be alone with her sister. This was the only place, besides the Halliwell Manor, that he felt safe.   
  
"Cole?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
Leo spun around to see Cole standing in the shadows. "I need your advice."   
  
"You need my advice. Boy, that's a switch."   
  
"It has to do with the timeline. As far as I know you are immune to it so what ever I tell you can't change it further. Am I right."   
  
"Yes."   
  
"There is a part of the Halliwell family history that has been altered by a Warlock. He went back in time and is going to fall in love with the Charmed Ones' mother. I am afraid that it is going to cause the end of the Charmed Ones."   
  
"Leo, there are a lot of changes in the timeline. They were set in stone and are destined to repeat over and over. It is a part of the timeline, not something that is wrong. Trust me. What is happening is happening for a reason of the greater good, don't hinder it."   
  
"I think that you are trying to help the greater good of the wrong side, Cole. Just because Phoebe believes in you, it doesn't mean that I do."   
  
"Believe what you wish, but I hope one day I will be able to convince you that I have changed."   
  
"Oh, one more thing. If the timeline changes and what I am asking about changes, do not tell me or the Charmed Ones." Leo orbed out and Cole sat in silence.   
  
Cole knew the true history of Patty Halliwell better than anyone, including Patty. If Leo changed that history, there would be two horrible consequences. One of which was the future of the woman he loved.   
  
August 14, 2000   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
It's been six months exactly since Valentines, and finally he's mine. Six months ago I wouldn't have believed that I am living with the love of my life as my husband.   
  
The Elders put us through so much, but I think that it made us grow closer. I realized that some things are really worth waiting for, and Leo definitely is one of those think.   
  
Now that I have him, I will never let him go. Never!   
  
Piper 


	8. Chapter 8

"Good morning Piper. Coffee made yet?" Phoebe hoped as she ran through the living room into the kitchen.   
  
"Yes--Not like you would hear my answer though!" Piper commented as she saw her sister run pass her. "What's your hurry?" Piper leaned back in her comfy sofa and wished she could be back in bed. Too bad, she thought. We three witches have a lot to do.   
  
Phoebe ran back in the room and joined her sister on the couch, nursing a large cup of coffee. "Mmmm, I love this new brand. Is it a gourmet?"   
  
"Of course!" Piper looked at her spoiled sister and giggled. "It's called decaffeinated."   
  
"It's what! You know that I can't wake up in the morning without my caffeine."   
  
"You look pretty awake to me."   
  
"Shut up and get our old stuff out. If you think that I am mad you ought to wait until Prue gets up!"   
  
Piper giggled some more.   
  
"What's so funny?"   
  
"She got up two hours ago, enjoyed her coffee just as much as you were a few minutes ago, and left. I guess I shouldn't have told you."   
  
"Where was Prue going in such a rush this morning?"   
  
Phoebe couldn't help but laugh at the situation. Still, she didn't care and wanted her old breakfast staple back.   
  
"Don't know--something about a ticket for work. She didn't have much time to talk."   
  
Phoebe was curious to what her oldest sister was up to, but there was still this situation about the coffee that she needed to deal with. As she opened her mouth to give Piper a piece of her mind the phone rang.   
  
Phoebe jumped up and ran to the phone.   
  
"Hello. Oh, hi. You're joking! This fast! I'll be there to ASAP! Thanks!"   
  
The grin on Phoebe's face was so wide when she hung up that Piper knew something was going on.   
  
"What's going on?" Piper bluntly began as her sister picked up her purse.   
  
"I got to go to a friend's house. Bye."   
  
Piper looked around the room as her sister slammed the front door. Friends? Boy, it's been a long time since I had time for one of those. Phoebe must not be as busy as she acts. Between work and school and our wonderful family legacy there isn't much time left in our lives. Lucky her!   
  
* * *   
  
Patty opened the front of the book. The first page she read was about Malinda Warren, the woman that her mother had been speaking about. It wasn't the first time that she had heard of this woman. Her mother had spent a lot of energy talking about the family history, of course leaving out the part about being witches.   
  
She began to read the pages that laid in front of her. It was hard to believe that she was really a witch, but it sure explained some of the events that had happened in her youth.   
  
She remembered once when she walked into the attic and her mom was seated around the low sitting table, the one that was still there, and there were candles everywhere. Her mom was talking in rhyme and their seemed to be wind all around her.   
  
When Penny saw that her daughter was in the room, she stopped her activities, and did her best to explain what she was doing. "I just like reading my poetry in a soft and comforting setting," she told Patty. It didn't seem to comforting being knocked over by wind, but she knew better than to argue with her mother.   
  
Patty looked back at the page that was in front of her and began to read.   
  
Melinda Warren left England and arrived in America in 1654 with her two-year-old daughter, Cassandra. Her descendants include branches of the Grants, the Morgans, and the Marstons.   
  
So I am really a witch. She remembered that one of her grandmother's last name was Mars ton.   
  
Never forgetting her knowledge of witchcraft, Melinda Warren possessed three special power: The first, telekinesis, or moving objects using only the power of her mind. The second, clairvoyance, or the ability to see the future. The third power, to stop time.   
  
I wonder how they decide which power each witch gets. I mean, why can I stop time, and not be able to see into the future, clairvoyance I think it is called?   
  
Melinda Warren's powers were discovered when her lover, Hugh Montgomery, betrayed her to the townspeople. She was tried for witchcraft, found guilty, and sentenced to be burned at the stake - a sentence that was never given before.   
  
The townspeople tied her to a stake in the center of the village. The executioner waved a flaming torch before her and asked if she had any last words. This is what she said   
"You may kill me, but you cannot kill my kind. With each generation, the Warren witches will grow stronger and stronger - until, at last, three sisters will arrive. Together, these three sisters will be the Charmed Ones."  
  
The executioner then touched his torch to the straw beneath Melinda's feet. She died horribly - but her power lives in every Warren witch's heart. It will be a joyous day when the Charmed Ones are begotten.   
  
Wow! That is dedication. "Boy, that story must have affected me more than I thought, because I swear I smell something burning--hair and flesh actually.   
  
Patty looked around the attic. In front of her a personage appeared. It's form was grotesque and it stench made her sick.   
  
"Hello, my darling. I have been waiting for the day that I could meet the mother of my Charmed Ones."   
  
"The mother of who?"   
  
"Your children will be very powerful. Did you not know?"   
  
"Who are--" finally Patty realized who she was talking to. She was standing in front of the woman who had made the prophecy, the prophecy of the salvation between good and evil.   
  
"Why me?"   
  
"It is time. You were born for this purpose, as was your mother, and her mother before."   
  
"It is time for what."   
  
"It is time to end the suffering that the other world causes. Don't be afraid. Your power will be great and your mother is very strong, and she will protect you and your children."   
  
"But when will I--"   
  
"Your children will come sooner than you think. Your husband has been chosen and you will meet him very soon. My time is up dear. Thank-you for all you will do."   
  
The hovering entity left the room, and Patty stood alone again.   
  
"I think I already have met him."   
  
* * *   
  
"Where's Phoebe at?" Prue asked as she came in the front door and saw that Piper was sitting on the couch.   
  
"She left a while ago," Piper paused long enough to stick a chip in her mouth. "She said something about getting something from a friend."   
  
"What?"   
  
"Beats me. You know Phoebe."   
  
Prue sure did know Phoebe and she got a great demonstration of Phoebeness in the kitchen. "I just can't believe that she was so preoccupied with Cole that she didn't even have the courtesy of going to her own room."   
  
"Are you still on that?" Piper understood what Phoebe had done, though she didn't really approve. "When you have a love one who disappears for large amounts of time and you don't know when your going to have to say good-bye again - if your lucky enough to say good-bye - then you think that you have to use every moment that you are given."   
  
"Are you saying that you have--"   
  
"What I am saying is that I have thought about--"   
  
"Piper I would have thought that you--"   
  
"Hey! I am human!"   
  
"And that gives you the right to--"   
  
"That gives me the right to be loved! Now shut up!"   
  
The two sisters looked at each other a few moments trying to find some subject that the two of them could agree upon. Finally Piper Spook up. "What's so important that you need to talk to Phoebe right now?"   
  
"There is something going on, and we need to get to work on it now. I mean, Leo orbs in acting like the world is about to end and then he suddenly decides he can't tell us a thing. Then Phoebe acts the same way and when she starts to tell us she passes out. When she comes to she can't remember a thing. I don't know about you, but to me it sounds like someone is trying to keep something from us.   
  
"Are you saying that Leo is in on this?"   
  
"I don't know what is--"   
  
"Take that back!" Piper yelled.   
  
"It's just that in our line of work anything is possible.   
  
The cut off and yelling session ended with the door flying open.   
  
"Will you please stop using your karate kick to open the door? It's not like we can afford more repair on this house!" Prue ordered.   
  
Phoebe looked at her sister. "Well, it isn't like I can open it with my mind." Prue knew what her sister was getting at. Prue often used her powers to open and close things around the house. Until recently Phoebe hadn't even had an active power, but now that she did she had a very hard time controlling it. Actually, she had no idea when she was going to suddenly become air born.   
  
"Ever heard of your hands?" Piper added in on the attack of her little sister.   
  
Phoebe realized that the two of them had a point. Lately it seemed like all of the extra money was being spent on repairing and replacing the expensive antique furniture. The problem had gotten to the point that Piper suggested getting replicas, but Phoebe knew that if Grams found out, she just wouldn't approve.   
  
In hopes of changing the subject Phoebe hid the box that she had been holding at her side behind her back. "Guess what I picked up?"   
  
Prue smiled. "An S.T.D.?" she teased thinking about what had happened in the kitchen earlier.   
  
Piper glared at Prue. "I said that subject was closed!"   
  
"Oh, talking behind my back now." Phoebe giggled. She knew that what had been seen wouldn't easily be forgotten, and it was fun teasing her sisters, since she didn't get to do it often. "Guess what I got."   
  
"I don't know. What do you have?" Piper said correcting her sister's wonderful English skills.   
  
"A doctor's coat!" She blurted out.   
  
"Don't tell me your changing your major again!" Prue sighed. Phoebe had been in school forever, never making up her mind of what she was going to become.   
  
"No, it's for Halloween."   
  
"Phoebe, I hate to say it, but it's a few months until October. Actually it is half a year from Halloween."   
  
"I know, but when I found out that this was available I just had to get it."   
  
"How much?" Prue asked.   
  
"What?"   
  
"How much?" Piper joined in.   
  
"What?" Phoebe repeated.   
  
"How much did that stupid thing cost?" Prue finally spelt it out to her sister.   
  
"Only $50," the youngest Halliwell declared as if she had just spent a quarter.   
  
"For a Halloween costume! For someone without a job you sure can hand out the money." Prue and Piper were the only ones with jobs, but Phoebe sure acted like she had one.   
  
"It's worth it! It even has my name on it." She showed the white coat to her sisters. Printed on the right hand shoulder in black embroidery was P. Halliwell M.D. It really did look authentic. "Besides, how much did you just spend on your new camera?"   
  
"That's different. Photography is my profession."   
  
"Technicalities!" Phoebe continued.   
  
"You do know that impersonating a doctor is a serious crime. Don't you?" Piper asked.   
  
"It's not like I am going to go to a hospital and try to treat patients. I just want to have something great for the P3 party. Now if each of you can get nurses costumes-the old ones--with the tight white fitted dresses--then we can go and--"   
  
"And be your workers?" Prue started. "I don't think so. If anyone, and I mean anyone, is going to be the doctor it is going to be me."   
  
"And what gives you the right to be the doctor?" Piper asked.   
  
"Last time I checked I was the oldest sister!"   
  
"Last time I checked I was the one who thought of this." Phoebe defended herself.   
  
"Why are we fighting over something that isn't going to happen for a half year? And anyway if it we have a repeat of last year's wonderful events we won't even be here." Piper remembered how she was honored with first being hanged and then being a mid-wife for some long lost relative.   
  
"Come on guys we need to get to work, on something that is going on now."   
  
Piper and Phoebe looked at Prue. She was right. There was a lot to get done, and they needed to get started now.   
  
"To the attic." Phoebe took the box that contained her Halloween costume and through it in the hall closet. She lifted up her leg to shut the door and suddenly realized that both her sisters were glaring at her. After the last conversation she had had, the last thing she needed was another lecture. Slowly she put her leg down and used her hand to gently close the door.   
  
"Now was that so hard?" Piper asked jokingly to her sister. "Hopefully if you keep that skill we can save a few hundred dollars a month."   
  
The three of them turned and started the familiar journey to the attic.   
  
November 6, 2000   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
I never thought that I would see love someone so much. I don't even think that he knows it. Still, Cole is so cute, and so caring.   
  
When I saw him standing up there, trying to prove the man was guilty I just knew that this man was for me. He wouldn't give up. When he thought something was unfair he told the judge just what he thought. To bad that got him in contempt of court a few times.   
  
I think that he likes me, just by the way that he looks at me. At least I hope so.   
  
Phoebe 


	9. Chapter 9

Cole shimmered into Phoebe's room, knowing that she wasn't there. Though he longed to hold his sweetheart in his arms, he had other plans to work on.   
  
When Prue, Piper, and Phoebe had decided to go to the attic Cole had returned to Phoebe's room. The attic wasn't a place where he felt welcome. Ever since Prue had set a magical trap on the floor of the room in hopes of capturing the demon Belthazore, he had tried to stay away from the Charmed Ones' alter room, if possible. That magical trap had almost exposed his identity to the sisters, and Prue had never trusted him even though he did a good job explaining what had happened.   
  
Finally, after a brutal attack, Cole became dispirit, exposed himself as Belthazore, and took Phoebe as a hostage. He didn't intend to hurt her, but it allowed him to leave the room without the sisters using the potion they made to vanquish him. Inside that hansom exterior of a man, inside stood a demon that by himself could end the lives of the Charmed Ones, but luckily he had changed his mission. He was in love, desperately in love, with one of the creatures of goodness that he was sent to kill.   
  
It didn't matter anymore what he had been sent to do. His new life was one with Phoebe, and he awaited the day until he would be free from the evil magic that he was fighting every day. "Soon," he thought. "Soon I'll be able to live a normal life. I guess the most normal life I can have being in love with a witch."   
  
"Leo." Like all Whitelighters, Leo had disappeared right when he was getting to the point. "Leo. Where in the hell are you."   
  
"Last time I checked, I don't live in hell," Leo joked as he orbed in the room. "In fact, the only times I go there is when I have to baby sit you."   
  
"If that is the thanks I get for trying to help you out, then I guess I'll let you go back to your heavenly resting place."   
  
"Sorry, what is so important?"   
  
"You tell me. You know more than you said."   
  
"What if I do? Why should I help you?"   
  
"Because I am the only one who can help."   
  
"We had a report that some priestess took a baby, a very important baby, and put a spell on her. The best we can put together is that it was a plan to harm the strength of the Charmed Ones."   
  
"Don't you think that something would have shown up before now?"   
  
"Maybe it was suppose to start when their powers got strong, and gained the trust of the Elders."   
  
"I don't' know. But for the sake of Phoebe, I'll go look around down there."   
  
"Do you think that is wise? You know how well you are liked down there."   
  
"I don't think it is wise to loose the ones I love." Cole's love for Phoebe was so strong. There wasn't anything that he would refuse to do for her, or for the family that she had given him. "I still have some tricks up my sleeve. They won't even know I'm there."   
  
"Okay, but don't blame me if you get caught. We don't even know if there is something to worry about. You could be doing this for nothing."   
  
"Phoebe isn't 'nothing!'"   
  
"I didn't mean that," Leo spoke back. "I just don't know if--"   
  
Cole didn't stay long enough to hear the end of Leo's response. He shimmered out of the room to begin his search. Maybe if he did this, Cole could gain the complete trust of the Elders, Leo and most importantly the Charmed Ones.   
  
* * *   
  
"So what did you buy?" Phoebe said breaking the thick silence.   
  
"What?"   
  
"Piper said you were buying something."   
  
"Oh, a ticket to a concert."   
  
"Really? When?"   
  
"It's on third of next month, and your not going"   
  
"But--"   
  
"No buts--this ticket cost me over two-hundred bucks, and I don't have enough money to waste on two tickets. I wouldn't be going myself, but I think that the pictures might give me some attention at the magazine."   
  
Piper looked at Prue with a serious face. "What did you say the day was again?"   
  
"The third, why?"   
  
"Sorry Prue, but you can't go."   
  
"And why not?"   
  
"Because that is the date of our vacation, and you're not getting out of it."   
  
"But there is no way I can get a refund."   
  
"Sorry, but you already promised us."   
  
"Fine! Be that way."   
  
Phoebe hadn't seen her oldest sister get that angry about missing something that she didn't want to go to in the first place in a long time. There must be something else on her mind.   
  
"Okay Prue, spill it." Phoebe was dying to know what her sister was up to.   
  
"I don't have anything to spill." Prue was so involved in looking at the Book of Shadows that she didn't continue the conversation.   
  
"Then why are we up here?" Phoebe kept the conversation going.   
  
"There has to be something, somewhere. I hate this book sometimes. I swore! They should have included a user's manual when they made the book."   
  
"Prue what's going on?" Phoebe would not let the matter rest. "What are we doing?"   
  
Prue's energy turned from questions to anger. She couldn't find anything. How come when Phoebe wanted something in the stupid book did the book just show it to her? This is crazy!   
  
Prue's anger at the Book raged. Suddenly the book flew off the podium and went across the room hitting the far side of the wall.   
  
"Prue! Do you know how old that book is? It just can't take the type of beatings that you can hand out!" Piper ran across the room and picked up the book as careful as she could. "Lucky you it didn't rip in half." From the corner of her eye she saw a piece of paper fall out. It was folded in half a few times over.   
  
"What's that?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"I don't know." Piper bent over and picked the note up. At least it looked like a note, one like they would pass around the class in junior high school.   
  
She walked over to the podium and put the Book of Shadows back on its home, and put her concentration toward the newly found clue.   
  
"It looks like a letter," Piper finally said. "To Dad."   
  
"From who?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"Mom."   
  
"Let me see!" Phoebe was acting like a three year old. She was good at that.   
  
It had been a long time since they had found something from their mom. They missed her so, but since they grew up without her the pain had mostly passed.   
  
"What's it say?"   
  
"Give me a chance. Let me read it. Piper, hand it over."   
  
September 25, 1968   
  
My love,   
  
Guess what! You're finally going to become a father. I just went to the doctor and confirmed what mom has been telling me for weeks. I don't know how she could know.   
  
When you came and told me that you wanted to have a child out of the blue, I was so surprised. I never dreamed that you would be the one to start begging to have a baby. I always thought that that task would fall to me. I am so happy!   
  
I still have six months to go. I can't wait! I hope that you can get home soon. I want to hold you so much. I hope your business trip doesn't last much longer.   
  
With all of my love,   
  
Your fiancé,   
  
Patty   
  
"This must have been when she found out about you, Prue. I didn't know that Dad was the one who had--"   
  
"Yuck! Stop it!" Phoebe looked up at her two sisters from beneath her hands that she had been using to hide her face. The thought of what her parents making love turned her stomach.   
  
"You can dish it out but can't take it yourself? Huh sis?" Prue was never going to forget about the kitchen incident.   
  
"Those are our parents!"   
  
"Come on Phoebe, get serious." Prue glared at Phoebe with her bossy eyes. "I wonder why this note was in the Book of Shadows?"   
  
"Well, the Book of Shadows is sort of a witches diary, maybe she stuck it in there for the memories." That was the real Phoebe. She was someone who could think up good reasons and possibilities for all sorts of situations.   
  
"Wait, there's another letter here," Piper looked at the second sheet of paper that had been folded with the first.   
  
"Well," Phoebe went back into her two-year-old mode again, "what's this one say?"   
  
September 31, 1968   
  
Kevin,   
  
This is so hard for me, and I know that it won't be any easier for you. I went to the hospital for my monthly checkup today and the doctor couldn't hear a heart beat.   
  
I wish that you would be able to come and see me. I know that you are busy at work and can't leave. Still I long for the day that we can marry.   
  
I am sorry honey. I know that this was something that you really wanted; it was something that we both really wanted.   
  
The doctor said that we could try again as soon as I am ready, and I guess as soon as you come home.   
  
I miss you,   
  
Patty   
  
"I guess that wasn't you. I never knew Mom had been pregnant before you Prue. Guess that people loose baby's all the time though." Phoebe sure took the news of a dead sister good.   
  
"Just a little question," Prue spoke up, "Who the hell is Kevin?"   
  
The three girls looked back at the letter and whom it was written to.   
  
"I guess Grams was right. And I guess I see the real reason why Mom didn't tell Grams about the pregnancy." Piper looked at her sisters. "I wonder why we never saw these before?"   
  
"Huh?" The expression on Phoebe's face was unforgettable. "You knew?"   
  
"I didn't know, but I had heard that maybe there was. Truthfully I don't think that Grams even believed it when she told me." Piper tried to explain.   
  
"I still don't understand why these letters are in the Book of Shadows. What's the purpose of them?" Prue leaned back in the old armchair that sat in the attic.   
  
"Knowing Grams and Mom they stuck these in here to help us. I have been through the entire book millions of times and I know they weren't here before." Phoebe suggested.   
  
"It almost sounds like they were never sent. Maybe they have been lying around the house in some hiding place that Mom had."   
  
"So why don't we ask them what was going on? Shouldn't they know something about what is going on with Phoebe and what is so important about these notes?"   
  
"They can't help you." The girls had been so involved in the conversation and letters that they had been oblivious to Leo when he orbed in.   
  
"What?" The sisters asked in unison.   
  
"The after world has been closed off by the Elders. Something evil is happening and they are trying to keep it contained."   
  
"What's new?" Prue asked.   
  
"All they are doing is stopping us from finding answers," Phoebe blurted out.   
  
"Like I said, what's new?"   
  
"All I know is what I said. I have to leave before I say too much." Suddenly the heavenly messenger disappeared from the room.   
  
"What is this? Clue? He stops in here tells us something and then disappears. Are we going to have to start asking questions and making him answer yes or no? Because I am not much of a fan of Twenty Questions and I have already had enough of Clue," Piper couldn't explain her husband's behavior, nor did she want to. Nothing made sense anymore.   
  
"Well, we do have two good clues here, and since someone went though the trouble of putting these letters right in front of our faces, I bet they are important." Prue was right, as usual.   
  
"Ah--What do you have in mind, Prue?"   
  
* * *   
  
"Patty, I can't believe it. You make me feel like I am in heaven!"   
  
Patty and Kevin sat on her bed. They had been there for over an hour. She didn't know why she had invited him up to her room, but when she did she knew that the Charmed Ones weren't too far away.   
  
"What do you think of children," Kevin said.   
  
Patty sat in shock. How did he know? "I love them," she finally spoke up. "What do you think of marriage?"   
  
"I thought that you would never ask." It wasn't her intention to seem like she was asking, but since he said yes what was the harm.   
  
"I love you," Patty said looking into his eye.   
  
"I love you too." A tear rolled down his eye.   
  
"What's wrong?" Patty asked.   
  
"Nothing." The true reason for his unhappiness was something that he just wasn't allowed to tell. He knew he would be leaving soon. "I have to go on a business trip," he finally spoke up. It wasn't the truth, but it worked for the moment.   
  
"When?"   
  
"Tomorrow."   
  
"For how long?"   
  
"I don't know."   
  
"At least we have tonight."   
  
Kevin looked into her eyes, and he couldn't stop himself. She was such a warm person. A person that he was more than willing to spend the rest of his life with - even though that was the eternity he had been condemned to because the actions of his sister.   
  
She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. She couldn't bare to think about the fact that in the morning she would have to say good-bye. If she only knew the truth, that he was never coming back, maybe she wouldn't let him go.   
  
February 12, 2001   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
How can she be in love that man? He's a demon for heaven's sake--one that was sent to destroy us--the almighty Charmed Ones! After all he did to her, and she still sticks by his side. It is sickening!   
  
I really don't understand it how she can trust him. It just doesn't make any sense. If my lover ever put a knife to my neck I wouldn't step another foot in the same room. But she goes and makes out with the man, if you can call him that, every chance that she has. It is down right disgusting!   
  
Prue 


	10. Chapter 10

The girls piled out of the Prue's SUV. They were parked in the visitor's section at the local hospital. Phoebe was sure that they had been all born at the same hospital, and she knew that this was the one she was born in. It would make sense that their mother's records would be her.   
  
"How exactly are we going to pull this off?" Piper asked.   
  
"We're just going to ask some questions," Prue answered, "and see what we can find out."   
  
"So what are we waiting for?" Phoebe joked. "Let's go!"   
  
"This is not a field trip, Phoebe! We have some serious work to do."   
  
"Prue. You can be such a stick in the mud sometimes."   
  
Prue sighed and started walking toward the hospital's main front door. She paused quickly to make sure that her sisters were behind her before she reached out to open the glass double doors. The glass was covered with various sizes of handprints, some on top of others. It looked as if the shinny silver metal handles were as invisible as the glass use to be. Boy, how often do they wash the windows around here? Prue thought as she waited for Phoebe and Piper to follow her inside the icy cold room.   
  
"Hurry up, you guys, we don't have all day you know," Prue ordered.   
  
"Why don't we?" Piper asked back as she joined her sister in the hospital entrance.   
  
"Huh?" Prue responded.   
  
"What else do we have to do today?" Piper interpreted.   
  
"It's just a saying Piper! But still I have a feeling that what ever answers we get here are going to lead to a lot more work."   
  
"So where should we start?" Phoebe asked with all the energy that had gotten her in trouble at the car.   
  
"I guess at the information desk," Prue replied looking at the long wooden desk that sat in the middle of the fork in the hallway.   
  
"I agree. Let's go." Phoebe's enthusiasm was starting to annoy Prue.   
  
"Calm down!" Prue glared at her sibling. "We aren't going to get anywhere if you act like this. Can't you be a bit more professional?"   
  
"Prue, sometimes--"   
  
"Don't you dare finish that sentence Phoebe? No fighting today. That's an order."   
  
"All I was going to say is that sometimes Prue is too serious. Nothing mean. Honest."   
  
Prue shook her head at the ridiculousness of the conversation. "Well, I don't know what you guys are going to do, but I am going to ask her and see what she knows." Prue walked toward the desk that she saw ahead of her.   
  
A girl, in her mid to late teens, stood by the desk in a red and white striped dress. She held in her hands a large stack of folders that seemed to be exploding with paperwork. "Dr. May told me to bring these down here. I don't know why. Shouldn't they go to records?"   
  
The lady on duty at the desk laughed. "Dr May loves to send his volunteers on Wild Goose Chases. I guess he doesn't think that you have anything else to do."   
  
The sisters looked at each other and Phoebe started to laugh. It seemed like in the last few days that they had been on several of those searches. In fact, Phoebe remembered calling one of Leo's task just that, 'a Wild Goose Chase.'   
  
The Candy Striper looked at the receptionist. "He does what? If he doesn't think that I have enough to do then he can just--" The girl stopped herself before she regretted anything she said.   
  
"Just take them to records, Hun. I'm sorry about this."   
  
"It's not your fault, but thanks for your time." The girl walked to the front of the desk and turned down the right hallway, smiling at the sisters as she passed them.   
  
"May I help you?" the seated lady politely asked the three strangers that stood before her.   
  
Prue took one large step that placed her in front of her sisters. "Yes. We are looking for some records. Where should we go?"   
  
"Are they yours?" the woman routinely asked.   
  
"Ah, yes." Prue justified her answer to herself. The records belong to Mom. When Mom died all her belonging went to Grams, and when Grams died all her belongings went to us. So, in a weird way they do belong to us. "Yes they do."   
  
"Then just go down the right hall and you will find records at the end of it."   
  
"Thanks." Prue looked at her sisters and motioned for them to follow her. They walked down the hall that they had been informed to use. "That was sure easy." Prue finally told her sisters.   
  
"You know you make a good liar Prue."   
  
Prue didn't feel like justifying her actions to her sisters. She was more worried about what they were going to say to the attendant when the reached 'records'.   
  
As they walked down the long hall the white tiled floor changed to dark navy blue carpeting and then back to the tile again. When they reached the large window that had 'RECORDS' written above it Prue stopped as though she was scared to continue the search.   
  
"What's wrong?" Piper asked. "Do I sense a bit of chicken in you?" Piper's attempt to defuse the tense situation only managed to make Prue mean.   
  
"Damn it! It says that only patients or their legal guardian can check out their own folders."   
  
"What did you expect, Prue? Come one, come all? Did you think that we could just walk in here and--"   
  
"Phoebe! That's enough!" Piper had gone back into her motherly mode. "There is plenty that we can do."   
  
"And what exactly would that be? Phoebe asked.   
  
"Just watch!" Piper was getting tired of this. Sometimes Prue and Phoebe act like toddlers. And lately it seemed as if the terrible twos where making an encore performance. Oh well. Live and let live.   
  
Piper walked up to the window and hit the top of the little round metal bell that sat on the desk inside. An older man walked up to the window and asked, "What may I do for you?"   
  
"We think that mother was a patient in this hospital quite a few years ago. Is there anyway that we could get some information?"   
  
"Sorry mam. Only the patient can see their medical information. If you can bring her in she can sign the release and then you can see it."   
  
"I don't' think that that is possible."   
  
"Is there anyway that--"   
  
"Sorry mam, but--"   
  
"Don't call me mam!" Piper screamed at the man as she raised her hands and froze him.   
  
"Piper! Not here!" Prue ordered. "Security cameras."   
  
Piper quickly unfroze the man and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.   
  
"Sir can you answer a question for me?"   
  
"Ask and I'll tell you if I can answer."   
  
"Where do they keep old records?"   
  
"Sorry, that's classified and off limits."   
  
"Can you tell me what floor it is on?"   
  
"Mam, I mean Miss," the man continued remembering Piper's earlier warning, "I can't tell you anything. I'm--"   
  
"--Sorry. I know." Piper was frustrated, that was obvious. If only I could get him to tell me what I need to know. A smile began to form on Piper's face, and she turned her attention back to the man. "The truth I seek; For you to speak; Of things not told; Of secrets so old; From days of youth; Reveal the truth."   
  
The three girls turned their attention to the man. Could it actually work? It was in the Book of Shadows so it should. Well actually it has to.   
  
Piper looked straight into the eyes of the previously uncooperative man. Now let's see if you can be a little more helpful. "Sir, where can I find the records for my mother?"   
  
"Downstairs in the basement, but only doctors and nurses are allowed in."   
  
"How do I get in?"   
  
"There is a guard at the door and you just have to show him your hospital identification card."   
  
"Do they do any type of electronic tracking on the card?"   
  
"No. Pretty much if you have a card, and you are in either a doctor's or nurses uniform then you can get in."   
  
"Thanks." Piper turned from the window and started walking down the hallway that she had earlier traveled through.   
  
Prue and Phoebe, who had spent the entire time arguing with each other, looked at each other as they saw Piper pass them and followed her sister. When they caught up with Piper they could see the smile on her face.   
  
"What are you planning?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"Phoebe, maybe your expensive Halloween costume will prove worth its weight in gold. Since we certainly paid close to that."   
  
* * *   
  
Carissa walked through the cave and to their secret hiding spot. She reached in and pull out the plastic contain. "Finally!" It was the first note that her brother had left her.   
  
August 13, 1968   
  
To my sister,   
  
I have planted my seed in the mother of the Charmed Ones. She hasn't told me, but I know that a very special child is on the way. It won't be long and you will be a mother.   
  
I know that my task was to seduce the mother of the Charmed Ones, but she has also seduced me. My feelings are so strong and they grow day by day. Still, I know that in a few days I will have to leave this place and this person.   
  
I hope that she will never realize why I came here. I just want her to think that I had to leave and never had a chance to come back to her.   
  
I am ready for your spell to send me home.   
  
Your brother,   
  
Kevin   
  
Carissa could hardly believe her eyes. It had worked! Her plan of revenge had worked, but it was more than that. She longed to possess what her magic had kept her from having, and soon she would.   
  
* * *   
  
"Okay, Piper you stand behind me and if anyone seems to be wondering what we are doing, freeze them."   
  
Piper, Prue, and Phoebe jumped out of the car heading toward the hospital main door.   
  
"Do you think that the doctors and nurses just walk in the front door?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"Don't know. We'll try."   
  
"Piper are you sure that is a wise idea?" Phoebe looked a bit worried.   
  
"Do you have a better one?"   
  
"No, I guess not."   
  
"Phoebe, are you sure that these I.D. cards are genuine?" Prue looked at her sister.   
  
"He's the best," she responded. Phoebe had gotten a hold of one of her friends that specialized in the art of counterfeit identification. His service was mainly used for Driver's License to get teenagers into bars, but he could do almost anything. He'd never been caught--Not yet anyway.   
  
"Okay, her goes nothing," Piper gave a smile to her sisters dressed in nursing scrubs. She was dressed in her sister's Doctor's coat. Since the plan was her idea she got to play the lead.   
  
* * *   
  
"Is anyone watching?" Phoebe asked looking over her shoulder.   
  
"Well, if you would stop acting so paranoid they wouldn't be. But I don't think so," Prue responded.   
  
"Do you think that the records will be shelved still? That is sure going to be a task to find." Piper wondered.   
  
"I don't know. I bet they would be on microfiche by now," Prue suggested.   
  
"You know, you'll probably right. I had to get a copy of some old records of Grams for the insurance company and they were down in the basement." Piper looked around and headed toward the elevators.   
  
Phoebe ran ahead and hit the down button.   
  
"Oh yah, she's acting like a college educated nurse. Sometimes I wonder if she will ever act her age."   
  
"Prue stop it or your going to give yourself away." The door open and Piper stepped in and her sisters followed.   
  
"Basement floor coming up." Phoebe announced as she pressed the button, playing the role of bellhop.   
  
"Ding," the doors opened up and the girls were standing in front of a huge room.   
  
Phoebe made a gasping noise and prayed that it wouldn't be someone who knew that they weren't who they were saying they were.   
  
The door opened and standing in front of them was Leo.   
  
"What are you doing here?" Piper asked.   
  
"I believe I have more reason to be in a hospital than you do, although it's been a few years." Leo was right about one thing; since he had been a doctor in his human life he did have more of a right to be there.   
  
"I suppose you want to know what we are up to."   
  
"No."   
  
"What?" Piper said.   
  
"I already know."   
  
"So you do listen in on us," Prue accused.   
  
"Well someone has to take care of you. It isn't like you think your plans through all the time."   
  
"More like never," Phoebe wasn't too good at getting herself out of trouble.   
  
"Phoebe, you know sometimes it would be better for you to say nothing at all than to try to defend us."   
  
"Your welcome." Suddenly she realized what her sister had actually said, "Hey!"   
  
"It's about time!" Prue snapped back.   
  
"So what are you guys waiting for?" Leo asked.   
  
March 29, 2001   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
Only a few more weeks, and I will be a graduate. No more school. Finally, I will be able to get a job, and I'll be able to own things of my own.   
  
For years now Prue and Piper have been supporting me. I am tired of it. I need to be able to be on my own. I need to be able to live without my sisters' helping hand. I guess if I had a wish that would be it.   
  
Phoebe 


	11. Chapter 11

"I don't feel too good, Mom."   
  
"Well," she corrected.   
  
"Okay, so I don't feel too well."   
  
"What's wrong?"   
  
"I think I have the flu. I've spent most the morning in the bathroom."   
  
"In the middle of September? Well, I guess you should go see the doctor. I can't go, but I bet the neighbor can take you to the hospital. I'll call and ask, and I'll make an appointment."   
  
"Okay, I'll go get ready."   
  
"Just remember, the witchcraft is a secret."   
  
"I'm not dumb Mom, give me some credit."   
  
* * *   
  
"This is crazy! How large can one person's medical chart be? There must be three inches of paperwork in here." Piper's frustrated searches were stressing her out.   
  
"I wonder why it's so think," Phoebe asked.   
  
"Well, maybe it's because she had three kids and when she wasn't raising us she was fighting demon," Prue's deductive reasoning was astonishing sometimes.   
  
Phoebe wondered around the large room looking at old folders either waiting to be copied into microfiche or be shredded and destroyed.   
  
"Hey, behave yourself back there," Piper ordered making sure not to take her eyes off the computer screen.   
  
Piper on the other hand kept her attention to the task at hand.   
  
"Prue, do you think that you could spare a minute and help me go through all of this information. We're going to be here all night."   
  
"I would love to, but there is just one little problem."   
  
"And what might that be?"   
  
"Well, there are three microfiche machines, and you are using the only one without a "BROKEN" sign on it.   
  
"That's just a technicality."   
  
"I need to be guarding the door anyway."   
  
Piper finally gave into her sister's persistent refusal to help. "Fine, I guess your right."   
  
"About what?"   
  
"You pick."   
  
"Crash!" The noise had come from the corner of the room where Phoebe had been hiding earlier.   
  
"What in the world is going on over there?" Prue demanded.   
  
"Nothing," Phoebe responded in a guilty voice.   
  
Prue knew that whatever had just happened in the corner was anything but "nothing." She walked through the maze of shelving and found Phoebe surrounded by mounds of folders with the paper that they contained spilled everywhere.   
  
"Phoebe. Did you or did you not hear Piper say not to touch anything?" Prue scolded.   
  
"I believe that she said to behave myself," Phoebe fought back.   
  
"I believe not touching anything is implied in behaving yourself."   
  
"Maybe to you."   
  
"Sometimes Phoebe I just want to--"   
  
"You want to what?" Phoebe asked in with a smirk across her face. Phoebe may have always had a hard time keeping her hands off things, but when it came to Prue, she never could keep her mouth closed.   
  
"Just clean this mess up."   
  
"I found it!" Piper blurted out. "It looks like Mom was pregnant before Prue.   
  
"When?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"Oh my, in 1968. She was only eighteen. She came in in September and the doctor said that she was three month pregnant."   
  
"She must have had a heck of a graduation party!" Phoebe could resist the urge.   
  
"Phoebe! Have you ever heard of not speaking what's on your mind?" Prue scolded.   
  
"No." That was the truth.   
  
"What else does it say?" Prue decided to get back to business.   
  
"Not much." Piper flipped the page and found another entry. "Ohmygod!"   
  
"What is it?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"She lost the baby."   
  
"What are you so surprised about? You already knew that."   
  
"Oh, that's right."   
  
Phoebe looked at Leo. "Your sure being quiet. What do you know that you're not telling us?"   
  
"Why do you think I know something?"   
  
"When else are you so quiet?" She had a point. It wasn't like Leo was extremely talkative, but he usually said something once in awhile, after all it was his job to advise the Charmed Ones.   
  
"I just didn't have anything to--"   
  
A key jiggled in the lock in the door. Piper put the file back and prepared to freeze the intruder.   
  
"Come here," Leo ordered.   
  
"Why? Don't you know that we are about to--"   
  
"Come here."   
  
The girls followed his command, and he grabbed a hold of Phoebe and Piper's hands. Prue grabbed onto Pipers shoulder and the four of the turned into blue particles as the orbed out of the room.   
  
"What about the files?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"Forget them!" the three screamed in unison.   
  
* * *   
  
"Well why don't we take some test and see what's going on."   
  
"Sounds find to me."   
  
"Oh, is there any chance that you might be pregnant?"   
  
"Why?"   
  
"Just something else we could test for. That and there are some medicines we can't give you if you are."   
  
"Well--"   
  
"Yes then?"   
  
"Yah, there is."   
  
"Thanks for being honest. I'll be back in when the test are done. The nurse will tell you what you need to do."   
  
Patty followed the nurse to the bathroom and then to the lab and finally back to the room she had already spent an hour in.   
  
"Please have a seat," the nurse directed. "The doctor should be back soon."   
  
After fifteen minutes of waiting the doctor finally came back in.   
  
"So what did you find out?" Patty asked.   
  
"The good new is that you don't have the flu. And the other new can be taken either way."   
  
"Well, what is it?"   
  
"There is no way to say it, but come right out and say it: Your three months pregnant."   
  
"I'm what! This can't be possible. Not yet."   
  
"I take it that this wasn't planned?" the doctor asked.   
  
"Oh, your fast."   
  
"I'll call and tell your--"   
  
"Don't you dare. As far as she is concerned, I have the flu. Understand?"   
  
"Yes, but I don't know how your going to hide it."   
  
"I'll tell her, when the time is right."   
  
"I'd hurry because you only have six months and you'll be carrying around a little bundle of joy."   
  
"Fine. Just don't say a word."   
  
* * *   
  
"That was fun!" Phoebe celebrated.   
  
Piper, Prue, and Leo shook their heads had their sister's preadolescent behavior.   
  
The four found themselves sitting in Prue's SUV which they had left parked in the hospital's visitor's parking lot.   
  
"It was close, not fun," Prue corrected.   
  
"Just drive," Piper ordered. "We have some work to do."   
  
"What else did you find in that file?"   
  
"Just records of Mom's pregnancies, all four of them. At least that is what I saw between where I started and where I stopped."   
  
"Where did you start?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"Her--Ahhh--Death Certificate."   
  
"I said 'where did you start?' not 'where did you stop."   
  
The subject of Patty's death was something that none of the girls were too comfortable talking about, but Phoebe was so young when it happened that she never even tried to deal with it. Prue on the other hand had, not too well it sometimes seemed, but she had grieved. "Phoebe sweetie, the records begin from the most recent entry, not from the first entry," Prue tried to explain.   
  
"There was a strange thing though."   
  
"What?"   
  
"Before the entry about Phoebe's birth there was an entry about a baby or maybe it was just another pregnancy, but then it was crossed out. It almost seemed like it was a mistake."   
  
"Maybe the doctor grabbed the wrong chart and made the entry for someone else."   
  
"Maybe someone grabbed the wrong baby and tried to cover it up."   
  
"I believe that Mom would have known if she had a baby and someone took it."   
  
"You must be right. It had to be a wrong entry," Phoebe decided.   
  
"Leo. What do you think?" Not a word came from his mouth. "Leo. What do you know?" Piper knew that when her husband didn't give an answer he was hiding something.   
  
"Nothing important," he finally said.   
  
"Prue, can't you drive any faster?" Leo ordered.   
  
"Okay, you know something."   
  
* * *   
  
Once they reached their old Victorian house Prue and Phoebe ran upstairs to change their clothes from the scrubs that they had been wearing. The scrubs may be comfortable, but they sure weren't fashionable.   
  
Phoebe changed her clothes and headed toward the stairway.   
  
"Prue, I am going downstairs. I'll see you when you're ready."   
  
"Just a minute."   
  
Phoebe stood at the stop of the stair spying on her sister and her husband. They seemed to be having a little bit of a lover's quarrel. Just as she was about to go down the stairway Phoebe felt a giant push on her back.   
  
Rapidly she found herself flying down the stairs. The pain was overwhelming. It seemed as if every other stair was hitting her head. She landed at the bottom of the staircase dazed and wondering what had happened.   
  
"Are you okay?" Piper asked being concerned about the difficult times her sister had been having lately. "Don't tell me you had another vision?"   
  
Leo ran to her side to make sure she was okay.   
  
"No," Phoebe finally answered.   
  
"Then what happened to you?" Leo asked confused.   
  
"I was pushed."   
  
The three of them looked up at the top of the stairs seeing whom the culprit was, if he or she was still there. She was. Prue stood at the top of the staircase with her hands on her hips with a large sneer on her face. She didn't' even try to hide her guilt.   
  
April 2, 2001   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
I knew what I was in for when I said "I do," but Leo just doesn't seem to understand. I tried to explain it to him, but when I get a chance and I find the courage he has to leave. I guess it is hard to fix the problem when the problem is keeping me from fixing it.   
  
I love him so much, but I don't love the long periods of time that I have to spend away from him.   
  
Lonely as Always,  
  
Piper 


	12. Chapter 12

"Prue! What are you doing?" Piper yelled. Prue slowly started to descend the stairway looking at her hurt sister.   
  
"What was that for?" Phoebe finally asked, but Prue gave no response.   
  
"Prue?" Leo asked realizing that there was something wrong. "Prue?"   
  
"What happened?" Prue asked.   
  
"What do you mean 'What happened?'" Piper mocked. "You happened! That's what happened!"   
  
"I don't remember--"   
  
"You don't think that we're actually going to believe that do you?" Piper continued the attack.   
  
"But I don't--"   
  
Leo looked at Prue, examining the soul of the woman that he had grown to know. He picked up his wife's arm and directed her into the kitchen.   
  
"Piper, I think she's telling the truth," Leo said once they were safely out of earshot. "I think that something just came over her, but she's fine now. I think--"   
  
"I think that you are in on this with Prue and you two just want to keep me from protecting my little sister."   
  
"Piper--"   
  
The kitchen door swung open and a tall slender woman stood glaring at the two fighting lovers.   
  
"What are you doing in her when there is work to be done?" the intruder questioned.   
  
"Okay, your right. She's okay." Piper followed her big sister back into the front room to see what had giving Prue such a burst of witch's energy.   
  
When Piper and Leo rejoined the group it was obvious to them that Phoebe hadn't been hurt from her fall down the stairs.   
  
"Your head feel okay?" Piper asked.   
  
"Yah, just fine."   
  
"Let me get this strait--You are just fine that Prue pushed you down the stairs?"   
  
"I deserved it."   
  
"What?" Piper asked, shocked of her sister's answer.   
  
"Strange things happen to us all the time. With Prue's power I am lucky that all she did was push me down the stairs."   
  
"I think the only strange thing that is happening here is that you haven't punched Prue's lights out!" Piper responded.   
  
"Piper!" Leo finally broke in. "Are you trying to start a fight?"   
  
"I am trying to find out what just--"   
  
In the middle of Piper's sentence everyone attention changed to the intruder in the room.   
  
"Cole! What are you doing here?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"Leo! Your right! There is something wrong, but don't forget my warning. If we fix the problem we may be destroying the solution," Cole's emotion was strong on concentrated only on Leo.   
  
"What problem?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"The one that we are about ready to fix," Prue responded.   
  
"Too bad that we don't know what it is," Piper reminded. "But I bet it won't be long before we--"   
  
"Leo! What the hell is going on?" Prue demanded.   
  
"--Find out," Piper finished.   
  
* * *   
  
Carissa prepared for the moment when she would have what she always dreamed of having. The baby was almost hers; a magical child of my own, to raise in the way that I see fit. She won't have to waste her time saving all of the people this world that don't know how to protect themselves. No one should have to be condemned to that fate!   
  
She thought of what evil deeds that could be done with this child on her side. Not only could she destroy the Charmed Ones, but also she could have all of their power, and not have to deal with the rules that the Charmed Ones had to.   
  
"Soon," she thought. "Soon."   
  
* * *   
  
"What did you find out, Cole," Leo asked.   
  
"There is a warlock named Carissa who has sent her brother back in time in order to still a baby Charmed One."   
  
"She did what!" Piper couldn't believe what she had just heard.   
  
"In other words she is going to still one of us!" Phoebe shouted.   
  
"Looks that way, Pheebs," Prue commented.   
  
"So what are we going to do about it?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"What do you think we are going to do about it?" Prue continued. "We are going to beat her at her own game. Except this time we are going to take a gown up warlock."   
  
"Phoebe, go get the time spell. I don't think we have much time to waste," Piper realized.   
  
"Why don't we just have Cole take us?" Phoebe asked her sisters.   
  
"I can't work with a demon," Leo began. "You should know that much."   
  
"And I refuse to help you do something that I think is wrong," Cole protested.   
  
"Good enough reason for me. If Cole thinks that it is the wrong thing to do, it must be the right," Prue declared.   
  
Cole glared at his least favorite Charmed One. Someday, maybe she'll trust me and let me get a little closer to whoever is inside that cold shell. Maybe--maybe in hell. It wasn't that Cole wanted Prue to like him, all he wanted was for Prue to accept that he loved her little sister and that she loved him. There had to be something that he could do to prove his devotions to the Charmed Ones--someday, maybe.   
  
"Phoebe, go get the spell!" Prue ordered. "We are wasting or time!"   
  
* * *   
  
"What am I going to tell Mom?" Patty thought out loud. "I'm going to have a baby! A Charmed Baby!" Through all of her worrying about having a child, she had never stopped to think of the prophecy that was beginning to take shape.   
  
Patty sat at home in the living room alone. Her mom had gone somewhere for the day, and Patty was glad that she had time to think. There was so much that she needed to think about after all. What should I name her? I know it will be a girl? Don't I? How should I tell Kevin? Should I call him? Should I write him?   
  
Patty reached over and picked up the small notebook that was on the floor. "Maybe I should write him a letter." She looked around the room for a pencil and realized that she had one holding her hair in a bun. She reached up and pulled it out, gracefully shacking her hair down.   
  
"My Love," she began. "Guess what! You're finally going to become a father. I just went to the doctor and--"   
  
After Patty started the letter it wasn't hard to complete. The words just seemed to flow onto the paper. I'm glad I thought of this, she thought while finishing the letter. "With all of my love, Your fiancé, Patty."   
  
Patty leaned back in her chair, relieved that the task was done. Slowly she tore the paper from the notebook and folded it into intricate designs like the ones she passed at school. "That's a little childish," she thought. "Oh well."   
  
She stood up and lifted up the couch cushion and reached into a little slit in the bottom of the cushion. This was the only place where Penny hadn't found Patty's notes, and with the contents of this one, she hoped it stayed that way.   
  
Patty started to replace the cushion when she realized that she wasn't alone in the room. A woman stood in the corner, watching her every move.   
  
Patty threw up her hands, but her power was too uncontrolled. The woman was not only unaffected, but she was laughing at the inexperienced witch's attempt to stop her.   
  
"I'm with child!" Patty blurted out thinking that the woman would have petty on the unborn child.   
  
"I know," she responded. "Why do you think that I am here?"   
  
Patty stood in silence not knowing what to do next, but she didn't have long to thing. The woman held up a paper and began to read:   
  
The child, which is yours no more   
Leave your mother's womb secure   
Place inside my motherly soul   
The child which will now be stole.   
  
The woman dropped the paper to the floor, but nothing had happened. Patty was new when it came to casting incantations, so she thought for a minute that it hadn't worked. The woman began to read it again, and this time Patty started to feel a little week.   
  
Patty suddenly realized that she couldn't support her own weight. She began to sway and fell to the floor. As she laid helpless, she could see the writing on the paper. The woman had repeated the first part word for word, but there seemed to be more on the page.   
  
Patty strained to see what was printed, finally her eyes adjusted to the small handwriting.   
  
The incantation must be repeated until the deed is done. The power of the child will determine the strength the incantation requires.   
  
"She must be powerful," Patty thought as she started to lose consciousness. The woman started to read it again, but this time something stopped her. Patty dreaded seeing an entity more powerful than the one that seemed to be killing her.   
  
* * *   
  
Phoebe came running down the stairs with a piece of refolded paper wadded up in her right hand. "I found it!" she yelled almost out of breath.   
  
"What took you so long?" Prue scolded.   
  
"It would have been a little easier to find if someone didn't decide to keep it in their jogging suit," Phoebe narrowed her eyes at Piper.   
  
"Sorry," Piper said remembering what she was wearing the last time that they were using it. "At least I was using it to save you," Piper threw in trying to make it not seem so bad.   
  
"Stop your bickering. If were going to do this, let's do it now!" Prue ordered again.   
  
Phoebe unfolded the paper, making sure that it contained the spell that they wanted.   
  
The bond which was not to be done   
Give me the power to see it undone   
And turn back time   
To whence it was begun*   
  
It was the right one. The three witches plus Leo who was going to go along for the ride, and probably the save, joined hands and began to chant. "The bond which was not to be done; Give me the power to see it undone; And turn back time to whence it was begun." They repeated it two more times when the room began to take on a life of its own.   
  
Cole ran into the kitchen to make sure that he wasn't apart of this plan. He knew that whatever happened it would be the end of his loving witch.   
  
The noises died down and Cole pushed open the kitchen door a crack to see what had happened. The room was completely empty of the Charmed Ones and their Whitelighter.   
  
"I hope I'm wrong," he said, knowing inside that he wasn't. "I'm going to loose her." A tear slowly rolled down his cheek at the realization. He couldn't bare the thought of loosing the only person who had ever loved him, at least not again.   
  
Cole walked over to kitchen table and picked up the necklace that he had seen on Phoebe earlier in the day. The pendant was close to the clasp, and he pulled it to the middle of the chain. "A wish," he thought as remember the old folktale. "I wish that whatever happens, it won't affect Phoebe, that she won't forget any of the timelines she has lived."   
  
* * *   
  
As the girls appeared they thought that they hadn't gone anywhere. They were standing in their living room, but that is when they noticed the difference. Their Mom was lying on the floor next to them.   
  
"Mom!" Phoebe shouted out of concern.   
  
Oh yah, she knows how to not pollute the timeline.   
  
"Excuse me miss. What did you call me?" Patty muttered in her weakness. Patty looked confused about the magical intruders, but she had more important matters to deal with. "Stop her!"   
  
Prue responded to the intruder as if she were attacking Belthazore himself. All of the anger that she has collected over the last year bolted out of her with one swing of her arm.   
The lady tried to stand, but Piper froze her in place, while Phoebe pulled out a piece of paper that she had brought along.   
  
"What is that?" Leo asked.   
  
"What do you think?" she responded. "I have to contribute some way, don't I?"   
  
"Phoebe, you know that you're important to us--" Piper started one of her reassuring speeches.   
  
"I was joking!" Phoebe broke in. If I have to hear one more of those blasted "We need you, too" speeches I am going to scream. Ever since the Charmed Ones were blessed with there powers and Phoebe seemed to have gotten the raw end of the deal Piper had been trying to make her feel needed. Even after Phoebe gained her power to fly, Piper kept the speeches coming.   
  
Phoebe unfolded the wadded up piece of flowered notebook paper and began to chant:   
  
The child who hasn't seen the light of day   
Is not yours to take away   
End your attempt to take the un-named   
And return yourself to where you came.   
  
The room became bright, and brighter, and brighter, until it was too bright to look. Then suddenly, the light was gone. Patty, the Charmed Ones, and Leo looked up to see what had happened. They were the only ones in the room.   
  
"Phoebe, your getting good at making spells up," Prue commented.   
  
"It's about time that you noticed!"  
  
"I think that that spell was a little bit better than good," Piper corrected.   
  
"She's right, Prue," Leo added in. "You don't give your sister enough credit."   
  
"Phoebe. That's a pretty name. I've been thinking about naming my child Phoebe, but I decided on something else first. Maybe Phoebe will be next, or the one after that."   
  
Phoebe felt a little insulted. Why? She knew that she was the third born.   
  
"What are you naming her?" Phoebe asked, though she already knew that her name was going to be Prue.   
  
"We need to leave," Leo reminded them. "We've done enough damage to the timeline."   
  
They gathered together and began to recite the spell that Phoebe had altered to get them home:   
  
The bond that was not to be done   
You gave us the power to see it undone   
Move us forward to the time  
When we first began this rhyme   
  
"Thank you for saving my baby!" Patty cried. "Her name is Pamela!"   
  
April 21, 2001   
Dear Diary,   
  
The way they treat me is so unfair. They seem to think that I am a second rate child. I am the same as them, of the same mother and father. I just don't understand why this had to happen to me. Why am I so unimportant? Why can't it be one of them? Who says that the first-born are more important than the last? The Elders, that who!   
  
Phoebe 


	13. Chapter 13

"Did she say 'Pamela'?" Phoebe asked as they reappeared in the living room.   
  
"Hmmm? You need something." Phoebe looked at the girl who had answered her question. She had long black hair and was tall, taller than Prue. Phoebe had never seen the woman before, but by the look on her face she seem to have seen Phoebe before.   
  
"Excuse me, but what is your name?"   
  
Prue and Piper looked at their youngest sister in disbelief. "What is your name? Is that suppose to be some new type of way to say hello?" they repeated.   
  
"I hope that you remember your own sister's name!" the girl stated.   
  
"Sorry, but I--" Phoebe began.   
  
"It's Pamela!" the girl said trying to ignore the statement that seemed to be an insult. "Phoebe and your games."   
  
Phoebe didn't understand what was happening to her family. First she is told that one of her sister is going to be kidnapped and then she has an extra sister.   
  
"What is going on around--" she started again, but turned around and ran up the stairs. When she reached the top she turned and headed toward her room. It was a familiar path, but this time it didn't feel quite right.   
  
She reached out and opened her bedroom door. That's strange, she thought. I know I left it open. As she pushed the door open she could see that the furniture wasn't hers. It was Piper's.   
  
"What are you doing in my room?" Piper yelled from behind her. "I told you never to go in there!"   
  
"But this is my--" Phoebe started but was cut off.   
  
"For the last time--this is my room! And you're not aloud in it! What part of that don't you understand?"   
  
Phoebe started to remember a premonition that she had had, but she couldn't quite remember when she had had it.   
  
"That's it! Your out of here!" Pamela ordered.   
  
"It's not like we need you for the power of three," Prue added.   
  
"Ahhh, if you don't need me, then who do you need?"   
  
"Let's see. There is Prue, and then there is Piper, and lastly but most importantly there's me," Pamela stated, treating Phoebe as if she were a two year old. "And last time I checked one plus one plus one is three. I never did understand why Mom had four kids!"   
  
"You don't understand why Mom had how many kids?" Phoebe was so confused. Who was this girl, and why had she taken Phoebe's place in the power of three.   
  
"Four! Mom had four daughters."   
  
"But--"   
  
"What? This is stupid! Just like you Phoebe. Stupid!" Pamela's words were hateful, and they felt like a stabbing knife.   
  
The three girls, who besides for their looks didn't even remind Phoebe of the family she once knew, pushed her down the stairs and out the front door. Phoebe sat on the front step of the house realizing that everything in the premonition was coming true.   
  
"I hope that I haven't forgotten anymore visions," she thought as she dropped her head into her open hands. "What am I going to do?"   
  
Phoebe sat thinking of what had just happened. "It's as if I had a cruel wish come true," she thought. Suddenly she thought back to what she had written. "Is it possible that--No, it can't be."   
  
* * *   
  
"Cole!" Phoebe screamed as she entered the mausoleum. "Help me!" Phoebe collapsed on the floor with tears streaming from her eyes.   
  
"What's wrong?" Cole asked concerned about his soul mate.   
  
"They are," was all that Phoebe could say between the sobs.   
  
"What's wrong with them?"   
  
"Ever since we went back in time there has been this stranger, and Prue and Piper don't act right."   
  
"I was afraid that something like this would happen. I warned Leo, but for some reason Whitelighters don't trust demons."   
  
Phoebe giggled as she forced a smile to appear on her face.   
  
"At least you haven't changed," Cole said affectionately as he pressed his lips to hers. "At least you are still my Phoebe."   
  
"I always will be yours. You know that."   
  
"That isn't what I mean."   
  
"Your right. My sisters have changed, and I didn't. Why is that?"   
  
"You ask me like I should know the answer."   
  
"Well don't you?" she asked suspiciously. "Was this some plot of yours to separate me from the Charmed--"   
  
"If it had been, then we would have never met."   
  
Phoebe thought about the statement for a minute and then realized that he was right. Phoebe had met Cole because she was a Charmed One, and he had fallen in love with her while he was trying to get closer to the Charmed Ones.   
  
"Then why didn't you change?" she asked.   
  
"Changes in the timeline don't affect me, at least they don't when I am in the Underworld. That is why I knew what was going to happen."   
  
"But if you knew, why didn't you tell us?"   
  
"Phoebe, if I came up to you and said you have another sister, but you can't save her, would you have believed me?"   
  
"No."   
  
"And we would be in the same position we are in now. Wouldn't we?"   
  
"But that still brings us back to the question of why I am not affected."   
  
"I made a childish wish. I didn't think that it would work."   
  
"A what?"   
  
"Actually, it was a witch's folktale. I just--"   
  
"A what? Don't answer that. Whatever happened to me there was a reason for it, and I choose to say it was for the good of the Charmed Ones. Don't you agree?"   
  
Relieved to hear that Phoebe was not going to ask why a demon was using good witch's magic he eagerly answered, "Yes!"   
  
* * *   
  
"I really don't understand Mom's reasoning in having Phoebe. I mean she was told she needed three girls, and she goes and has four!" Pamela wouldn't let the subject go.   
  
"Maybe she wanted a back-up--in case one of us--" Prue suggested.   
  
"Don't even think that!" Piper cut in.   
  
"Well, it would make sense. With modern technology who knows how many back-up there are that we don't know about."   
  
"Prue, are you saying that we could have a little sisters out there that we don't know about?"   
  
"Anything's possible Piper," Pamela added. "Hopefully the are more trustworthy than Phoebe though."   
  
"Still, I feel bad kicking my sister out of the house," Prue said as sympathetically as the normal Piper would have.   
  
"You wouldn't feel that way if you were the one she was acting like didn't belong in the family!" Pamela continued.   
  
Piper looked up at her sisters with a dazed look on her face.   
  
"What's wrong?" Pam asked.   
  
"Not another vision?" Prue asked concerned.   
  
"Yes, same as the last one. I saw Prue and Phoebe and myself around the table in the attic."   
  
"She doesn't have any power!" Pamela reminded, but this time the anger in her voice intensified. "The Book of Shadows says that only the first three born would have the ability to save the innocence, and she isn't one of them. Unless--"   
  
"Unless what?" Prue asked.   
  
"Unless it isn't the innocence that she is saving."   
  
"You would be the one to know the difference," Prue said underneath her breath.   
  
"What did you say?" Pam asked knowing exactly what words had just come out of her sister's mouth.   
  
"Well, you haven't exactly been the model witch lately," Piper spoke up in defense of her sister.   
  
"In what ways?"   
  
"Have you already forgotten what happened at the park today?" Prue scolded.   
  
"What? You wanted to waste your time on that little kid and his pet. I thought that we should worry about the warlock that was after him."   
  
"So is that how you justify letting the kid fall out of the tree?"   
  
"I had to make sure that I was with the warlock. I couldn't take the time to baby sit a kid."   
  
"Why did you have to watch the warlock? He was going to die, you know that."   
  
"I know. I had to be with him when he died."   
  
"Ahhh--and why was that?" Piper asked.   
  
"To get his power."   
  
"You got his power!"   
  
"Why? Are you jealous?"   
  
"No! Only warlocks can take powers and only when they are doing the killing. How did you plan on getting his--"   
  
An evil laugh came out of her mouth. How is it that she had never been caught? She turned and pointed toward the pile of newspapers that had collected into a small stack. Suddenly they were up in flames.   
  
"Not in the house!" Piper screamed.   
  
"Fine." Pam pointed toward the pile again and the flames went out.   
  
"Cool power!" Prue said impressed. "And all we have to do to get it is kill a warlock?"   
  
"Yep. That's all. I don't know what came over me. I would have never done something like this earlier. But when he touched my arm I felt this connection, and I knew that I had to have his power."   
  
"I wonder what other powers he had?" Prue wondered.   
  
"Why don't we look him up in the Book of Shadows and see?" Piper suggested.   
  
* * *   
  
"This old book drives me nuts sometimes. It seems like it is fighting against us," Prue complained.   
  
The girls had gathered in the attic and after lighting a few candles they surrounded the podium that held the Book of Shadows.   
  
"I thought that it was meant to help us," Piper added. "But it doesn't want to anymore, I guess."   
  
"Here it is! That's him. Kevin is his name,"   
  
"Well what are his powers?"   
  
"He can start and start fire, by the pointing of a finger--"   
  
"Well we already knew that!" Piper muttered.   
  
"And he can seduce woman."   
  
"What type of power is that? It won't help me much. I just don't think that I am in to that type of life style right now."   
  
"Pam! You know what it meant!" Prue scolded   
  
"Yah, but what could he possibly do with that power?"   
  
"I don't know, but I'm starved. Lets continue this later," Piper said as she headed toward the attic stairway. "Anyone else coming?"   
  
"Right behind you," Prue decided.   
  
Pamela closed the book and joined her sisters.   
  
"Last one to the kitchen gets to clean up the mess!' Piper yelled as she raced down the stairs.   
  
"That's not fare! You got a head start!" Pam yelled back.   
  
They left the attic, almost in the way that they had found it, but their presence had caused a dramatic change in the Book of Shadows. It was changing inside and out, but most importantly the Charm on the cover had changed. It was dark and disconnected--just like the unCharmed Sisters--dark and disconnected because of evil.   
  
May 3, 2001   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
Why didn't we think of it earlier? She has been causing so much trouble ever since she was born, and what do we do about it? We put up with it.   
  
Why? It was so stupid. We are the Charmed Ones. We are the most powerful beings ever, and we put up with the crap that our little unneeded sister pulls. Well, no more!   
  
No more will I have to put up with her whining about not having any powers. No more will I have to put up with her complaints about living in the basement. And no more will I have to put up with the drain that she puts on the family budget. Just as soon as I have a chance, Phoebe will be out of my way . . . Forever!   
  
The One and The Only,   
  
Pamela 


	14. Chapter 14

"I said 'Don't move!'" Pam yelled as she cornered a warlock. "Freeze him Prue."   
  
Prue flew out her hands toward the man that was a head of her. He stopped in mid motion as though he were made of stone.   
  
Piper ran around the corner, and caught up with her sisters. "This one's mine. Remember?"   
  
"We haven't forgot."   
  
"What's his power?"   
  
"I don't know. He hasn't used it," Prue responded. "I guess it's a surprise."   
  
Piper walked up next to the warlock and put her hand on his extremely well developed chest. "Mmmm--he must work out. Under different circumstances I wouldn't mind--"   
  
"Piper! That isn't what we're here for. Turn off your hormones for a little while, please."   
  
"Yes, big sister," Piper answered responding to Pam's leadership orders. Piper removed her hand from his chest and reached for her back. She whipped out a dagger from her waist where she had placed it a few minutes earlier, and stabbed it into the man in front of her.   
  
He unfroze and screamed in agony as the life force within him began to dwindle. As he died Piper could feel his power enter her body. It was a pleasure that she couldn't believe that she had lived her life without. The power was so overwhelming that she could hardly contain herself.   
  
"So--" Pam began, "How is it?"   
  
"It's wonderful," Piper answered enjoying the new source of energy that was contained within her body.   
  
"Want to try it out?" Prue asked.   
  
"Try what out?" Piper responded, wishing that she wasn't the center of attention. What a time for my shyness to reappear.   
  
"What ever new power you have."   
  
"Well, how do I do that?"   
  
"Just try."   
  
Piper thought for a moment, trying to think how to use her new power. Too bad that I can't just disappear and worry about this later.   
  
"Piper? Where did you go? I can't believe she just blinked away from us!"   
  
Piper stood in front of her sisters wondering what Prue was talking about.   
  
"I'm right here."   
  
"What? Where? We can't see you!"   
  
Piper reappeared in the room.   
  
"Where'd you go?" Pam asked.   
  
"No where. I just thought that I wished I wasn't in everyone's attention--that I would just disappear."   
  
"Neat!"   
  
"What?"   
  
"That's your new power. You can make yourself invisible," Pam explained.   
  
"Cool!" Piper said as she disappeared again.   
"Stop that!"   
  
"We need to go home anyway," Piper reminded as her image reappeared. "I need to hit the books. I have a test tomorrow."   
  
"Only, if you promise to help me get mine," Prue demanded.   
  
"Get your what?" Piper asked.   
  
"Get my warlock, stupid."   
  
"Oh, okay. We will get yours tomorrow."   
  
* * *   
  
Cole and Phoebe slowly walked up the stairs to the Manor. Phoebe dreaded going back. She had a horrible feeling about what was going to happen with the encounter with her sisters.   
  
"Hopefully Pamela won't be there," she said to Cole.   
  
"Who?" he asked.   
  
"My new sister," she responded as she knocked on the glass on the door. Suddenly she remembered how much Prue hated people doing that. As far as Prue was concerned, it was just one more way for the glass to get broken. "Shoot! Prue hates it when I do that."   
  
Cole moved Phoebe out of the way of sight and Phoebe looked at him confused. "Just thought it would be better for me to be the first person they see, since they haven't met me in this form of reality."   
  
"Oh," Phoebe responded moving to the side.   
  
The door opened with Prue standing inside the house. Cole remembered what Phoebe had said and quickly thought up something to say. "Sorry about knocking on the glass. I didn't realize that it was real stained glass."   
  
"Don't worry about it. You're just lucky that Pam didn't answer the door. She'd give you something you'd never forget if you--" Prue stopped herself before she gave away too much information. "How can I help you?"   
  
"Actually we were wondering if we could discuss something."   
  
"We?" Prue asked.   
  
Phoebe stepped into the sight of the door.   
  
"Oh," Prue said. "I guess."   
  
In the front room Piper was seated on the couch reading an Ethics textbook, or at least she was pretending to.   
  
"What's that have to do with running a night club?" Phoebe asked eyeing the Ethics book.   
  
"I'm the one that runs the night club," Prue corrected. "Piper's a student. Remember?"   
  
"Sorry. I don't know what I was thinking," Phoebe quickly added.   
  
"That's the problem. You don't think!" Pamela stated as she walked into the room from the kitchen holding the state of the art camera that Phoebe remembered Prue had just bought. Phoebe decided to do some serious thinking before she said another word.   
  
If Piper is a college student, and Prue is running P3--at least I assume it is still called P3, then that would mean that Pamela is the Photographer in the family.   
  
"Take any good pictures lately?" Phoebe asked, probing to see if she was right in her deduction.   
  
"Of course, but since when did you care about my work?" Pam asked.   
  
Finally, I got something right! "Could we talk?" Phoebe wasn't to good about changing the subject, but in this case she knew that there wasn't time to waste.   
  
"I guess," Prue answered.   
  
Phoebe looked around the room. Something didn't feel right, but it felt familiar. It felt like she had already seen the scene, but where? A vision.   
  
"Speak for yourself!" Pam answered.   
  
Boy, she has it in for me, Phoebe thought.   
  
Cole turned to protect Phoebe. He knew that something bad was about to happen by the way that Phoebe was looking. He ran in front of Phoebe, knocking the dagger that he kept in his waistband on the floor.   
  
"Cole!" Phoebe yelled realizing what he had just put in motion. Cole looked at her with eyes of guilt. "Leave! There is nothing that you can do now!"   
  
As the words left his mouth he saw Pamela pick up the knife and stab it into Phoebe's chest. She screamed and fell to the floor. A pool of blood formed into a wide area in front of her body.   
  
"No!" Cole screamed in guilt and in the agony of the loss. He ran to her side and held her hand. "Don't die, Phoebe."   
  
"There's nothing I can do now. They're evil. The Charmed Ones are evil." Her head fell to the side as she closed her eyes and let out a final sigh.   
  
"There's something I can do!" he declared as he shimmered the two of them to safety.   
  
May 3, 2001   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
This power is cool. I don't know why I never tried it before. I don't know why none of us ever did.   
  
I wonder what came over Pamela that made her do it in the first place. That man just bumped into her, and she changed. Almost like he woke the sleeping evil part.   
  
Oh, it doesn't matter. It is sort of fun. I like being able to disappear.   
  
I wish that Pam had used her new power to rid us of that awful sister. Seeing her burn up would have been a lot more fun than just watching her bleed. Oh well, at least there isn't a scorch mark on the floor. At least she's gone now.   
  
Piper 


	15. Chapter 15

Back in the mausoleum, which he had shimmered to just in time to escape his own dagger's blow, Cole sat fighting back the tears that were growing in his eyes. He knew that he had caused Phoebe's death. He had allowed them to go back in time, and save their evil half sister. He could have stopped them from going, but they wouldn't listen.   
  
"There was nothing else I could do!" he tried to tell himself. "The only person that could have stopped them was Patty and she's--"   
  
Cole had never considered actually having Patty stop the chain of events. But how willing would a mother be to giving up her first child. Then again, it was an evil child. He would have to try, it was the only hope he had.   
  
* * *   
  
"I am not going to let anyone take my baby!" Patty insisted as she placed the notebook that she had been writing in on the couch.   
  
"Even if in doing so you turn your other children evil?" Cole added.   
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"The child inside of you is evil. Her father is a warlock."   
  
"And how do you know this?" Patty asked suspiciously. How could Kevin be such an evil entity?   
  
"I am from the future," he responded.   
  
"And how do you know what will happen if I let the child be taken?"   
  
"The timeline didn't affect me. I know both of the versions of the future."   
  
Patty looked at him trying to decide if she should believe him or not. "And how come the timeline doesn't affect you?"   
  
"Because I am, I mean I was, a demon. Actually, I still am, but thanks to Phoebe I am changing my ways." A tear came down Cole's cheek as he remembered seeing Phoebe dying on the floor. She was so helpless, and there was nothing that he could do.   
  
"I believe you," Patty said at last. "What should I do?"   
  
"You will be attacked by a woman. Then three young, beautiful women will come to save you and there will be a man with them. Don't let them help you. No matter what you do, don't let them succeed, but don't harm them."   
  
"Who are these young ladies," Patty asked already knowing the true answer.   
  
"They'll be your daughters, but only if you don't let them succeed."   
  
"What happens if they do?"   
  
"All except one will turn evil," Cole remembered how Phoebe hadn't changed when the rest of the girls had, but that could have been thanks to Cole or it could have been the way it was meant to be.   
  
"And when will they become evil?"   
  
"After your first born meets her father. He will cast a spell and as soon as she touches him, she will take on the evil that her father had."   
  
"And what will happen to that one that is not evil?"   
  
"She'll die," Cole responded trying not to get emotional.   
  
"How?" Patty asked.   
  
"The child that grows inside of you will kill her," Cole couldn't stop himself. He turned around and allowed the emotion that he had been holding back to be released. He hoped that she didn't see him, but it was lucky that she did.   
  
"And why do you care what happens to my children?"   
  
"Because I love them, and I love one of them more than you can imagine."   
  
"The one you saw die?"   
  
"How did you--"   
  
"I saw it in you eyes. I saw the way you cared. And I saw your pain."   
  
"Do you have the gift to--"   
  
"No, but I am almost a mother, and I know."   
  
"Are you married to her?"   
  
"Not without the Charmed Ones' trust and their mother's blessing."   
  
"Does she love you?" Patty asked.   
  
"Yes, but I wished that her older sister would trust me more."   
  
Patty stood and realized that the man in front of her was right. She had to follow his advice, no matter how much it would hurt to loose her first-born baby girl.   
  
* * *   
  
After Cole shimmered back to the Charmed One's normal time, Patty had somehow found time to write the letter to the father of her baby. Even though she wasn't going to have it, and he was a warlock, he still deserved to know.   
  
When she finished the letter, she folded it up as neatly as a formerly high school student knew how. She stood up and lifted up the couch cushion and reached into a little slit in the bottom of the cushion. This was the only place where Penny hadn't found Patty's notes, and with the contents of this one, she hoped it stayed that way.   
  
Patty started to replace the cushion when she realized that she wasn't alone in the room. A woman stood in the corner, watching her every move. This must be whom he was talking about, she thought.   
  
Patty threw up her hands, but her power was too uncontrolled. Even though she knew about the woman's plans, it was in her witch's nature to try to stop her.   
  
"I'm with child!" Patty blurted out thinking that the woman would have pity on the unborn child.   
  
"I know," she responded. "Why do you think that I am here?"   
  
Patty stood in silence not knowing what to do next, but she didn't have long to thing. The woman held up a paper and began to read:   
  
The child which is yours no more   
Leave your mother's womb secure   
Place inside my motherly soul   
The child which will now be stole.   
  
The woman dropped the paper to the floor, but nothing had happened. Patty was new when it came to casting incantations, so she thought for a minute that it hadn't worked. The woman began to read it again, and this time Patty started to feel a little week.   
  
Patty suddenly realized that she couldn't support her own weight. She began to sway and fell to the floor. As she laid, helpless, she could see the writing on the paper. The woman had repeated the first part word for word, but there seemed to be more on the page.   
  
Patty strained to see what was printed, finally her eyes adjusted to the small handwriting.   
  
The incantation must be repeated, but the amount of times is unknown. The power of the child will determine the strength the incantation requires.   
  
"She must be powerful," Patty thought as she started to lose consciousness. The woman started to read it again, but this time something stopped her. Patty dreaded seeing an entity more powerful than the one that seemed to be killing her, but Patty knew whom it was. It was her daughters, her Charmed Ones.   
  
As the girls appeared Patty strove to stay awake. She had to stop what was going to happen. Somehow she had to stay conscious.   
  
"Mom!" Phoebe shouted.   
  
"Hello, my babies," Patty said. "I know why you are here, but you must leave now."   
  
"We're not leaving until we stop her," Prue declared.   
  
"No, you can't. It is meant to be."   
  
"How do you know?" Prue continued.   
  
"Because I'm your mother, and I know what is best."   
  
"Does that include destroying the Charmed Ones?"   
  
"If you do what you came to do you, you will destroy the Charmed Ones yourselves--At least the Charmed Ones that are meant to be."   
  
"Prue," Phoebe began, "I don't know why I know this, but she's right."   
  
"Leave, now. Please."   
  
As the intruder stopped her incantation to attack the girls they began a chant of their own--the chant to return home.   
  
The bond that was not to be done   
You gave us the power to see it undone   
Move us forward to the time  
When we first began this rhyme   
  
The girls left the room with the power of a tornado, and to intruder stood and laughed.   
  
"Looks like your saviors decided you weren't as important as they thought."   
  
If you only knew how important I am to them, Patty thought as Carissa repeated the incantation one last time. Patty screamed in pain and fell into unconsciousness.   
  
A few hours later she sat down to write a letter. This time it wasn't to Kevin; it was to her girls, Prudence, Piper, and Phoebe. It was an easy letter to write, but still she long to be able to know the child that was no longer hers.   
  
"Maybe one day--" she thought, but then she realized that good or evil the baby wasn't hers anymore. She had allowed someone else to take her and raise her, it was a hard decision, but she knew that it was best for her children to come. Patty knew that she was still too young to be a mother, even with the help of her own mother. "No, it was the right choice."   
  
One last thing to do, Patty thought. She picked up an old cherry wood box and placed the neatly written letter in at. She knew what the message would mean to her daughters, so she had taken some extra time to write it in calligraphy and place it in an envelope.   
  
"Here goes nothing," Patty said hoping that her plan would work.   
  
Take me away, forward in time   
And deliver me to this house of mine.   
Alone in a room for none to see   
To where my daughters came to set me free.   
  
The wind seemed to spin around her as if a tornado has found its way into the house, and when it died down she was standing in the kitchen. As she walked closer to the door she could hear the talking of three girls and a man. Patty decided that her spell had worked.   
  
She walked over to the kitchen table and placed the wooden box on it. She took the key out of her pocket and placed it inside of the lock, turning it half way. If the Charmed Ones are as powerful as they are said to be, then they don't need a key. She removed the key and placed it back in her jacket pocket. Then she reached back for the box and placed her lips gently to the top of the lid, and then placed the box back on the table.   
  
Return me home, from whence I came   
Taking me from this time and plane   
To my past I ask to be sent   
Return me to the place I was meant.   
  
In a moment Patty was back in her own time. She placed her hand on her stomach. The baby she had been carrying was gone, and her soul felt empty. "Good-bye my sweetheart. I'm sorry."   
  
* * *   
  
"It's about time you get back here," Cole said from the corner of a dark room. "Carissa, you sure don't carry her as well as Patty did."   
  
"Who--What--Belthazore!"   
  
"I prefer not to go by that name anymore, if you don't mind."   
  
"What do you want?"   
  
"I want you to promise to stay out of the Charmed Ones' lives."   
  
"I don't know if you are aware of what just--"   
  
"I know exactly what just happened, and I am the reason that it did happen."   
  
"And how did you decide that all the honor went to you. I believe that it was my plan."   
  
"Tell me. Did you see the Charmed Ones when you attacked?"   
  
"Yes. Why? It's not like they even tried to hurt a hair on my head."   
  
"Exactly. They were told to leave you alone."   
  
"Why?"   
  
"So that their place in time wouldn't change."   
  
"And what do I have to do?"   
  
"Well, your smarter than I thought. You have to stay out of the lives of the Charmed Ones. And that includes Pamela staying out of their lives."   
  
"Pamela. I like that name."   
  
"Do you agree?"   
  
"I agree that when my child is born in three months that we will stay away from the Charmed Ones, but I can't help it if the Charmed Ones come after us."   
  
"Fine, but that child shall not know who she was."   
  
"But what if she wants to know."   
  
"Like you'd tell her the truth."   
  
"Why Belthazore. You say that sounding like you like them. Oh, that's right. You do. Traitor."   
  
"We'll see who they are calling a traitor if I tell someone that you stole Patty Halliwell's baby and have no evil intentions."   
  
"How do you know that?"   
  
"You forget. I can go to the future. I know that you never tell her that she's not yours, and that you raise her without any magic involved," Cole was guessing. Sure he had looked in on her in the present, but he had never gone into the future.   
  
"Fine. Stay out of my life, and I will stay out of yours!" she yelled in frustration.   
  
"That's all I asked for. Oh, a little warning--"   
  
"Now what, Belthazore?"   
  
"The Charmed Ones will know if your daughter decides to invade the family."   
  
"How?"   
  
"Just don't let her try, and we won't have to worry about it."   
  
"Fine, just get out of here!"   
  
"My pleasure."   
  
May 3, 2001   
  
Dear Diary,   
  
I went to the attic today alone to look at the Book of Shadows. It doesn't look right, and I can't get the spells to work. I don't understand why. I am even having a hard time using my own power.   
  
I knocked a glass of the kitchen cabinet today, and I tried to freeze it. No luck! I had glass all over the floor to pick up. It was a good glass too.   
  
Maybe I just need to get some rest.   
  
Prue 


	16. Chapter 16

"What just happened back there?" Prue demanded on the spot of returning to her time.   
  
"I don't know. I guess Mother knows best," Piper added.   
  
"Well, since all three of us are still here, I guess that we are safe," Phoebe was glad that even though the mission hadn't been a success, they had all gotten out in one piece.   
  
"Was it just me or did anyone else get the impression that she knew we were coming?" Piper asked.   
  
"Well, maybe she had a vision," Phoebe said.   
  
"I thought that she could freeze time, not have visions," Piper corrected.   
  
"Oh, your right," Phoebe remembered what her dad had told her a few months ago.   
  
"Well, it sure seemed that she knew something that we didn't." Phoebe said. "Maybe a little ghost told her."   
  
Everyone glared at Leo, knowing exactly what Phoebe was thinking, and they were thinking the same thing by then.   
  
"Don't look at me like that! I had nothing to do with it!"   
  
"And why should we believe you?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"When was the last time I kept something from you?"   
  
The three girls stood and tried to decide if Leo was joking or if he had totally forgotten about the 'I can't tell you' speech that he had given a few days earlier.   
  
"Trust me! I don't know why your mom wouldn't let you do anything."   
  
"We'll we can just see about that!" Prue declared. "The truth I seek, For you to speak, Of things not told, Of secrets so old, From days of your youth, Reveal the truth."   
  
"So," Prue began again, "What do you know about what happened with Mom?"   
  
"Ahhh--Prue," Piper started. "It won't work on Whitelighters--remember."   
  
"You mean I wasted it for nothing?"   
  
"Seems that way," Phoebe responded.   
  
"Two down and one to go," Piper informed her youngest sister. "Phoebe would you like to try and see what you can do with your chance?" Piper joked thinking that the answer would be no.   
  
"Actually, yes." Phoebe replied. Piper looked at her sister stunned.   
  
As Phoebe looked into Piper's eyes Phoebe began the chant that Prue had just tried. "The truth I seek, For you to speak, Of things not told, Of secrets so old, From days of your youth, Reveal the truth."   
  
"So what are you going to ask her?" Prue whispered to Phoebe.   
  
"Piper, why do you have prenatal vitamins in your bathroom?"   
  
"You have what!" Prue responded in shock.   
  
Leo stood steering at his wife in shock.   
  
Piper smiled. "To prove that you have been snooping around in my room when I wasn't in there."   
  
"Oh." Phoebe's face turned red with embarrassment. "Sorry."   
  
"Thank-goodness," slipped out of Leo's mouth. He hoped that Piper hadn't heard him, or at least understood what he meant. Luckily, she didn't even bring it up.   
  
"Apology accepted. That is if you will stop looking around in my things."   
  
"I promise." Phoebe suddenly turned her head toward the kitchen. "Did you hear something?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"No. Why? Are you hearing things now instead of just spying on things?" Piper joked.   
  
"I just thought that I--Never mind. How about getting something to eat. Is anyone hungry?"   
  
"Well, I can agree with that idea," Prue smiled at the suggestion. After all it had been almost an entire day since they had a bite to eat.   
  
"That makes three," Piper added in.   
  
"Make that four."   
  
The girls all glared at Leo. "I thought you weren't suppose to eat on the job," Phoebe said. "Remember what Natalie said when she came to play back up Whitelighter?"   
  
"Natalie played by the rules too much!" Leo said.   
  
"Finally, you agree with us!"   
  
"Besides, I live here now. I'm not really on the job."   
  
The four walked into the kitchen and Phoebe walked to the refrigerator.   
  
"What's this?" Piper asked looking at the strange box that was sitting on the kitchen table.   
  
"Only one way to find out," Prue said.   
  
"Open it!" Phoebe ordered as she joined her sisters and Leo. "I wonder what's in it?"   
  
"Guys--are you really going to open a box that just appeared in your house?" Leo couldn't believe his ears or eyes for that matter. "Who knows what's in it! It could be a demon for all you know."   
  
"There isn't a key," Piper said with a look of disappointment and ignoring every word her husband had just spoken.   
  
"Since when did that stop us," Prue replied.   
  
"Are you really going to just open it?" Leo continued.   
  
"Hand it over. I'll get it open." Prue picked up the box and looked into the keyhole. "There," she declared as she lifted the lid. "Nothing a little magic can't fix."   
  
"Bracelets?" Leo said peering over the Charmed Ones' shoulders. "What's on them?"   
  
He was right. There were three bracelets and each had "P Halliwell" spelled out in script writing written with the metal that formed the front. The girls took their own bracelet and held it in their hand, inspecting ever inch of it. "Look! There is an inscription in mine!" Phoebe said in surprise.   
  
"Mine too."   
  
"Mine too."   
  
"Well, I hate to be technical, but what does it say?" Leo was standing behind all of the excitement, and all he knew was what he could overhear.   
  
"To my Charming Daughters: May all your dreams come true." Phoebe read out loud as she placed it on her arm.   
  
"I wonder how it got here?" Piper asked.   
  
"A time spell, I guess. Unless she had someone deliver it from the other side." The three girls looked at Leo to see if he were the guilty party.   
  
"Don look at me!" he replied to their accusation. "I know just as much about it as you do."   
  
Phoebe placed her hand down on the box and a vision came to her.   
  
Patty appeared from thin air and stood in the kitchen of their house. She was of flesh; she wasn't a ghost. She reached out to the table and placed the wooden box on it. Patty looked at the box for a moment and then bent forward, did something with a key, and kissed the lid. Then she began to say something, a spell probably, and disappeared.   
  
"She came from the past," Phoebe told her sisters and Leo.   
  
"How do you know?" Prue asked her.   
  
"How do you think?"   
  
"Look! There's something else in here--A letter." Piper picked up the envelope and took the paper out that it contained. "It's for you," Piper said as she passed it over to Phoebe.   
  
"Lucky," Prue responded jealously.   
  
"Hey wait. There's two of them in here," Phoebe said as she separated the two letters that Piper had taken out of the envelope.   
  
"Who's this one for?" Prue asked. "All of us, I guess."   
  
September 25, 1968   
  
To my Charmed Daughters,   
  
The power of three is a beautiful thing. It can destroy all evil, and it can attract all love. Though you will never have to fight for my love, nor your grandmother's, but there are those who will win your heart one day and you need to make sure that you know who they truly are.   
  
I know that this gift may seem too late for one, too early for another, and never needed by the last, but the time is right. An important lesson was thought to me, and you were the teachers, but I doubt that you remember. Some things are meant to be a secret to be held in time.   
  
These three bracelets are for my three daughters. Each is special in its own way, for you have a power that grows by the day. Join together and you will find, the strength when your powers are combined.   
  
They are a simple charm to remember your mother by - since I know you no longer have me with you. Never forget me, for I will never forget you.   
  
Your mother,   
  
Patty   
  
September 25, 1968   
  
My dearest Phoebe,   
  
I don't know how to tell you this, but by doing nothing you saved your life. It was because you obeyed my wishes that you are part of the Charmed Ones today.   
  
I was warned about what would happen if I allowed my rescuers to stop the intruder. At first I didn't believe what your friend told me, but as I thought about it, I realized that what he said made sense.   
  
He told me that if I had this child, there would be four Halliwell girls. There can be only three Charmed Ones at a time, and you were meant to be one. If there had been another child before you, your life would have been ruined.   
  
If this baby had been born to me and had became a Charmed One, the Charmed Ones would be evil. She is the child of a warlock, a powerful and extremely evil warlock.   
  
Your friend, the one that warned me about my child, is a very special man. Any demon that risks his life to save the Charmed Ones can only be good inside. It doesn't matter who he was; it matters who he is. He did not ask for my permission, but I know he loves you, and I know what he desires. He needs and wants you with all of his heart.   
  
I want you to know that it takes a special heart to find the true self of a person, and you have that gift. You didn't judge him, though you had the right. You didn't punish him, though you had the need. You did love him, though you had no cause. You did protect him, though you had no reason. Your heart lead you to this man, and it will hold you there.   
  
My darling Phoebe, you have my blessing. I wish you the happiest years that any witch could ever have. He is meant for you, he always has been. How do I know? I am your mother. That is how I know.   
  
Always with You,   
  
Your Mother   
  
Piper and Prue took turns reading their letter white Phoebe sat down and read her personal one.   
  
"Any clue to the person that Mom talked to in your letter, Phebes?" Piper asked when she saw Phoebe was done reading.   
  
"Ah, yah, you could say that."   
  
"Who was it?" Leo inquired. "I know that it wasn't me."   
  
"What?" the girls asked in unison.   
  
"Well, you never know when you mess with the timeline."   
  
"No, it wasn't you." Phoebe handed her letter over to Leo. "But you might as well know who it was."   
  
"Who?" Leo asked.   
  
"The only person who isn't affected by it."   
  
"And who is that?" Prue asked.   
  
"Cole!" Leo responded.   
  
"You summoned me?" Cole walked in the kitchen as if he had been listening in all along.   
  
"What are you doing here?" Phoebe asked.   
  
"Last time I checked you said that I could come here anytime I wanted," he said with anger in his voice. "Remember, you invited me to do so."   
  
"Sorry, that's not what I meant," Phoebe apologized.   
  
"I know. I was just teasing."   
  
"Next time, don't make me feel like I have hurt your feelings. Deal?"   
  
"Deal."   
  
As Cole walked further in the room he saw what everyone had been looking at when he entered. "Is it someone's birthday?"   
  
"No. Mom gave it to us, as if you didn't know," Phoebe responded.   
  
"So what's in it?"   
  
"A couple of letters and three bracelets," Leo answered as he reached into the box to pick one up.   
  
"No!" Cole responded.   
  
"Why not?"   
  
"Ahhh - because the last person that touched these were the girls' mom. Don't you think they should be the next ones to hold them?" Cole was relieved that he could think of something sensible to say at the moment.   
  
"And when did you get sentimental?" Leo joked.   
  
"That's a great idea!" Phoebe said as she picked one up.   
  
"Why don't you all put them on?" Cole hinted.   
  
The three witches picked up the gifts and each placed them on their wrist, helping each other connect the clasps.   
  
"I wish that Mom were here," Piper said.   
  
"I do too," Phoebe added, trying to comfort her sister.   
  
"I know. It has been so long since we have seen her. I would love to talk to her again."   
  
Suddenly a wind seemed to pick up in the room. The letters were blown to the floor the box was knocked onto a chair that was sitting next to the table.   
  
"Leo!" Cole yelled to get the Whitelighter's attention. "We need to leave. Now!" Cole reached out and grabbed his hand and took him out of the room.   
  
"Why?" Leo asked.   
  
"Just believe me. The girls need to be alone right now."   
  
Leo looked at Cole for a moment and realized that somehow he knew what he was doing. He just hoped that it was for good and not evil.   
  
The wind died down and the girls looked up to see a light that was circling the girls, which seemed to be coming out of the bracelets. Slowly a hazy form of a person started to appear.   
  
"Mom!" Prue yelled with joy.   
  
"Thank goodness," Patty said as she saw whom she was standing with. "I've been waiting for so long."   
  
"We missed you too," Piper said a little confused.   
  
"How long are you here for?" Phoebe asked as tears began to form in her eyes.   
  
"For as long as it takes to explain things," she responded.   
  
"Explain what?" Piper asked.   
  
"To explain what you did in the past to save the future of the Charmed Ones."   
  
* * *   
  
"Would you like to tell me why you decided we had to come out here?" Leo demanded.   
  
"Because those bracelets are magical."   
  
"What kind of magic?" Leo asked worried.   
  
"They're from Patty. What type do you think?"   
  
"Well, if you knew about them, then I don't know."   
  
"The bracelets have a spell on them to tell if the girls have the hearts of the witches that they were meant to be."   
  
"Ahhh - and what if they don't?"   
  
"They'll lose their powers," Cole responded bluntly.   
  
"They'll what?"   
  
"Don't worry. Everything is back to normal."   
  
"And what was out of normal?"   
  
"Let me put it this way. A certain Whitelighter told a certain demon that the timeline had been tainted by evil."   
  
"Oh, and let me guess, that same Whitelighter told you not to tell me anymore."   
  
"You got it."   
  
* * *   
  
"Good-bye, Mom. I love you." Piper said trying to hold back her tears.   
  
"I love you, too. All of you," Patty told her beautiful daughters as she gazed upon the girls she was so proud of, and then she was gone.   
  
"I already miss her. I wish that I could have known her better." Phoebe had known her mother for only a short time when Patty drown and it was very hard on her, though she rarely let anyone know.   
  
"I wonder why she gave us these bracelets the way she did?" Prue asked.   
  
"Maybe it was a way she thought would connect us to her, even when we are apart," Piper said.   
  
"I guess you can't get too much further apart than we are now," Prue realized.   
  
"Well, I know that I am not taking mine off for a long time," Phoebe said as she gazed at the magnificent piece of gold jewelry that laid on her wrist. It was so simple, yet so complex. Phoebe could swear that a moment ago a light was coming from the diamond that was set in the middle of the "P", but how was that possible.   
  
"I don't think that any of us will," Piper agreed.   
  
May 3, 2001   
  
Dear Diary,  
  
Sometimes I feel so angry that I have this "gift." But then there are the times like now, when I am thankful that I do.   
  
If I didn't have it I would have never been able to have Cole, though because of it he has tried to kill my sisters and I a few dozen times. But more importantly, because of it I was able to see my mother again today. I just wonder how she managed to get the package to us. For some reason I doubt that Cole went back in time and picked it up and delivered it. He just doesn't seem like the deliveryman type.   
  
Well, tomorrow is the big day. It has been so long since I have been able to go to Disneyland, and we all need the break desperately. Though it has been a long time since we have had a serious problem that our powers have been needed for.   
  
Goodnight,   
  
Phoebe 


	17. Chapter 17

"Hurry up and eat the rest of your burger," Prue ordered her youngest sister.   
  
"Why? Are we almost there?" Phoebe asked from the back seat.   
  
"No. How many times are you going to ask me that?" Prue responded.   
  
"How many times are you going to say no?" Phoebe responded.   
  
Piper began to giggle. "What's so funny?" Prue asked her sister.   
  
"You deserved that one," Piper laughed.   
  
"You guys are going to drive me crazy and we haven't even parked yet."   
  
"What are you talking about? We haven't even gotten out half way there yet."   
  
"We what!" Phoebe said. "I have been sleeping for hours. What have you guys been doing up there?"   
  
"Ever heard of rush hour?" Prue responded to her sister's anger.   
  
"And why did you want to know if I was done eating yet?"   
"Just wondering."   
  
Prue thought back to the two hours that it took Phoebe to decide what she wanted to take with her. She could have packed the night before, but she insisted that she didn't know what she would need to get ready in the morning. Thanks to that decision the girls hadn't been able to leave on schedule and had hit a very bad rush hour.   
  
It didn't matter. The three of them needed a vacation, a real vacation, and something that they hadn't had for a long time. With all of the stress that seemed to intrude their lives as witches, they deserved some time out now and then. And finally their plans hadn't been canceled.   
  
"I can't wait until we get there so I can go and relax," Prue spoke up.   
  
"I don't care about the relaxing, I want to go ride some rides!" Phoebe's childhood excitement grew with every passing minute.   
  
"I'll save the rides for tomorrow. I need a break from life right now, and a queen size bed will do just that."   
  
"So what exactly are you going to do all day while we are at the park?"   
  
"Something relaxing or more interesting at least."   
  
"Whoops," Piper whispered remembering what she had done.   
  
"What do you mean by, 'whoops'?" Prue asked.   
  
"Aren't full size just as good?" Piper tried to make it seem less of a problem.   
  
"Not when you have been expecting a queen size bed for weeks! Besides, if I wanted a full size bed, I would just sleep at home!"   
  
"Well, this way you won't be disappointed in your bed when you get home."   
  
"Speaking of beds, have you guys noticed anything missing or rearranged in your rooms?"   
  
"What are you hinting about?" Prue asked.   
  
"My diary--"   
  
Piper busted out in laughter, "You still keep your diary under you mattress?"   
  
"Why not? Why? Who would think of looking there?"   
  
"Oh--everyone. Why do you ask?"   
  
It's been moved a few times."   
  
"Are you sure you didn't move it?" Piper asked.   
  
"I put it in one place, and it keeps moving to another."   
  
"Well, we have two suspects -- Leo and Cole."   
  
Prue looked back at Phoebe, "My guess is--"   
  
"If you say Cole I'll hit you!"   
  
"Ladies, no fighting! We're on vacation. Let's just worry about it when we get home. Okay."   
  
"Fine," Phoebe decided.   
  
"Fine with me too," Prue answered. "Now, what about my queen size bed?"   
  
"Well, your not getting one," Piper told her sternly.   
  
Phoebe perked up, "Actually this way you'll have a little more money in you pocket when you get home."   
  
"Why didn't you say so," Prue responded.   
  
"What!" Piper couldn't believe her ears.   
  
"Now I'll have the money to buy those boots I've been wanting forever. Won't I."   
  
"Yah, I guess so."   
  
"I'm going back to sleep. Wake me up when we get there, and not a moment sooner. Well, make that about twenty minutes sooner so that I can redo my makeup."   
  
* * *   
  
"Disney Land!" Phoebe yelled from the back seat as they passed the sign at the entrance. "Here I come!" Then they passed the entrance.   
  
"When did you wake up?" Piper asked in shock.   
  
"A few minutes ago."   
  
"Sorry we didn't wake you up, but we both need to touch up our makeup too, so we decided we would stop and get a snack and then go."   
  
"You're going to get a snack in Disney Land already?"   
  
"No we are going to stop at a fast food place or something. Where it is less crowded," Prue explained.   
  
"Why don't we just go to our hotel and check in. It is almost time that we can anyway," Piper realized.   
  
"I guess that I could wait a little longer to see Mickey and Minnie."   
  
"Well since we have your permission now lets go to the hotel. Make a right up here Prue."   
  
"Right here?"   
  
"Yah, right here."   
  
The SUV turned the corner and Phoebe's lap of food ended up on the floor of the once clean car. Phoebe quickly bet over from her seat and began picking up the ice that melting on her sandaled toes.   
  
"I bet that's cold," a sweet voice commented.   
  
"Sure is. I'm glad you're not mad."   
  
"Hmmm. Did you say something?" Prue asked confused. "Oh, Phoebe. Can't you be a little more careful?"   
  
"But--at least Piper is on my--"   
  
"Phoebe! Clean up that mess!"   
  
"Hi Phoebe. You know you should be a little neater. Prue's right."   
"What! Who is--"   
  
"Phoebe--are you talking to yourself?"   
  
"No--I thought I was talking to--"   
  
"Not me."   
  
"Not me either."   
  
"Ahhh--Phoebe--I'm hurt. I thought you'd remember me."   
  
"Didn't you guys just hear--"   
  
"All I heard was you talking to yourself," Prue responded.   
  
"Are you telling me that you forgot me?"   
  
Phoebe sat; open mouthed trying to understand what was going on. Why could she hear something that no one else could, and why couldn't she see the person? Who is this person and why does she know my name? Maybe I'm just hearing things. That's it, I'm hearing things.   
  
Phoebe picked up her leg to knock the remaining ice off of her toes. A little jingle from the chain caught her attention. Phoebe had decided that the bracelets were more fashionable on their ankle so they had all made the switch. But it wasn't the fashion of the bracelet that was claiming Phoebe's attention; it was the diamond charm in the middle of it. It no longer resembled a normal diamond. It was now blue and glowing .   
  
"Who?"   
  
"I can't believe that you have forgotten me."   
  
Phoebe reached down and placed her finger over the glowing stone.   
  
Phoebe stood in a room with her sisters. In front of them was a very young version of their mother, and she appeared to be pregnant. It came back to her, Phoebe remember everything that had happened in the alternated timeline, and that included Pamela, Carissa, and Kevin.   
  
"Pamela!"   
  
"Who?" Prue asked.   
  
Phoebe ignored her sister's questions. She had something more important to worry about. Pamela was back.   
  
"Go away! Your not welcome here," Phoebe whispered hoping that her sisters in the front seats wouldn't here her conversation with the invisible person.   
  
"Ah--sister--I'm insulted."   
  
"You should be--and don't call me that."   
  
"Fine. I'll let you have your way this time, but to be surprised if this isn't the last time we meet. Oh, and next time I won't be so nice! Just don't forget that I have the same powers that you do.   
  
"You mean you have visions?"   
  
"No, I mean that I have the heritage that your mother pasted to you."   
  
"What are you sticking around for anyway! Leave!"   
  
"Fine, but don't expect me to so welcoming next time."   
"I wish that there was never a first time. Now leave!"   
  
"Why do we need to leave our own car?" Piper asked.   
  
"Actually it's my car, and I'm definitely not leaving," Prue snapped back.   
  
"I wasn't talking to you."   
  
"Then who were you talking to?"   
  
"Ahhh--Just a vision," Phoebe said trying to make up a believable excuse.   
  
"I never knew that you talked to your visions before," Piper responded to her excuse.   
  
"Ah--I guess my powers are expanding."   
  
"Either that or you loosing it!" Piper joked.   
  
Phoebe wished that it was as simple as that, but it wasn't. Still for the time being the Charmed Ones were on vacation and they desperately needed it. What could happen in the next few days anyways?   
  
"How far to the hotel?" Phoebe finally spoke up changing the subject.   
  
"It's right here," Prue declared as she pulled into the drive. "Lets go change and pretend we aren't witches."   
  
"Sounds good to me," Piper commented.   
  
"Sounds great to me," Phoebe corrected her sister. If they only knew how great.   
  
"The Charmed Ones are on the loose!" Piper yelled out the window, ignoring all the people who were already at the hotel.   
  
"We sure are!" Phoebe agreed. "Except this time there's one more of us!"   
  
"I can't wait to get out and stretch," Exclaimed Piper from the front seat.   
  
"Ah--what's that note on the door?"   
  
"I don't know. Let me get out and check." Prue walked over to the hotel to see a sign on the window that read:   
  
Because of rolling brownouts all over town we are sorry to inform you that the hotel is closed until tomorrow. We have been promised by the electric company that all power will be back on by then. I am also sorry to say that there are no other hotels open. If you would like to change your reservation until tomorrow, we will be happy to do so. Please sign the list under this page if you will be back tomorrow.   
  
Sorry for the inconvenience,   
  
The Management.   
  
Prue walked back to the car and delivered the bad news.   
  
"I thought that there were very few cars in the parking lot of Disney land!"   
  
"So why didn't you say so, Piper?"   
  
"Didn't think it mattered, I guess.   
  
Prue put the key in the ignition and started the car. "I guess we should get home."   
  
"Well, there's nothing else to do."   
  
* * *   
  
"Finally!" Phoebe exclaimed as they piled out of the car. The trip home had almost been silent. Phoebe was thinking about their uninvited guest and her warning of coming back. If she did, how would she explain it to her sisters? They would think that she as crazy! "I'll go unlock the door."   
  
Phoebe went up the walk and turned the door to the manor. Prue and Phoebe were shortly behind. They decided that there was no reason to bring their luggage in since they were leaving again the next day, so it didn't take long.   
  
Phoebe turned around to say something to her sisters as she opened the door, but when she saw the expression on their faces she quickly turned back around. The house was a wreck. All the furniture was overturned and the pictures that were once hanging on the wall now covered the floor.   
  
"Guess we had un unexpected visitor while we were gone," Prue decided.   
  
"It seems so," Piper agreed.   
  
"Well, I guess it's time to clean."   
  
The girls walked in and started the cleanup process that was all too familiar.   
  
"On the count of three!" Phoebe exclaimed as they went to put the couch in its normal position.   
  
"No need," Prue exclaim. With a flick of her finger the couch was back in it's designated position.   
  
"Well, we'll leave you to the heavy lifting." Piper and Phoebe went upstairs to see what damage had been done. On the way up the stairs Phoebe reached down to pick up a picture and suddenly a vision appeared.   
  
Her evil sister, Pamela, stood in the living room. She raised her hands straight above her head and a tornado appeared in the room. The furniture flew everywhere and so did the pictures and books.   
  
Phoebe sat down on the stair and wondered how she was going to explain this one. All she knew is that she had to do something, and it had to be dealt with by the Charmed Ones. Of course if I tell them, then I am going to further alter the time line. I need to make something up, and fast.   
  
"What's wrong?" Piper asked concerned?   
  
"Oh, I just got dizzy. Nothing to worry about."   
  
Phoebe and Piper went upstairs and found nothing touched, except that Phoebe's diary had been moved again.   
  
Thank-goodness, Phoebe thought. "I think that I need to lay down, just to make sure that I feel like going to Disney world tomorrow."   
  
"Okay, Phebes. I'll just go help Prue finish up downstairs. Later we can see if Leo or the Book of Shadows knows anything."   
  
"Sounds good."   
  
Piper turned Phoebe's bedroom light off while Phoebe cuddled under her comforter and closed her eyes.   
  
"See you a little later." 


	18. Chapter 18

"Phoebe! Get down here! Front and center!"   
  
Phoebe came running down the old fashioned stair case as fast as her legs could carry her, after all when your big sister wants you it must be something extremely important.   
  
"Where is my layout for next months magazine?"   
  
"Beets me. Why don't you ask Piper?"   
  
"Since when does she do practical jokes like this? I thought that I would spend my spare time today working on it, since we can't be in Disneyland, but no -- there is nothing to work on."   
  
"Phoebe!" a voice called from the kitchen. "How could you eat our dinner all by yourself?"   
  
"It wasn't me."   
  
"Well, Prue was downstairs and I took a nap, so the only person left is you."   
  
"Did you ever think about your husband?"   
  
"Did you ever think about your demon boyfriend?"   
  
"Just shut up! I didn't do it!" Phoebe returned to her room, knowing exactly who did do it -- Pamela. If she wasn't going to be a part of the family, then she was going to destroy what was left of ours.   
  
Phoebe walked back downstairs and calmly asked Piper, "Did we search the entire house?"   
  
"Yes. Of course."   
  
"Are you sure?"   
  
Piper looked at her sister and started to think about what had happened while they were gone. "I wonder if anything else was bothered?" Phoebe finally thought.   
  
"The attic!" the two girls screamed as their eyes meat.   
  
* * *   
  
In the attic the Piper and Phoebe looked through every chest, book shelf, and in all of their normal hiding places. No luck. "I guess that we were wrong," Piper finally spoke up.   
  
Phoebe walked over to the window and set on the floor. It was a place that she liked to unwind, and this was a perfect time to relax. As she leaned against the wall behind her she looked up at her beloved Book of Shadows, actually it was her family's beloved book of shadows, and she realized that it was no longer there.   
  
"Phoebe! Piper!" Prue suddenly appeared in the attic with a mound of torn paper in her hands.   
  
"What is it?" Piper asked.   
  
"The Book of Shadows!" Phoebe responded. It had been shredded until the only visible print was "Book" and "Shadows."   
  
"But how?" Piper asked. "The only ones who can touch this book are family members! So that means that one of you had to do it!"   
  
"Ahhh - as I recall, none of us were here. Remember?" Prue responded, insulted.   
  
"Then who? It's not like we have a long lost sister who can just break into the house and get to the book.   
  
Somehow Phoebe had forgotten about Pam, but she knew that who was behind the act. Phoebe thought of a way to get rid of her sisters because something told her that they couldn't know. The only thing that she knew for certain is that she needed to get Piper and Prue out of the room, before they really found out what was going on.   
  
Luckily, Leo showed up to save the day. "Piper! Prue! I need you now!"   
  
"And why not Phoebe?"   
  
"Because I need someone with developed active powers."   
  
"Oh," they said in unison. "And why?"   
  
"There is an emergency downtown."   
  
They joined hands and Leo orbed them out of the house.   
  
"Finally, alone!" Phoebe said relieved as they disappeared.   
  
* * *   
  
"Cole! Where are you? It's urgent!"   
  
In a moment the man of Phoebe's was by her side. "What's wrong?"   
  
"Do you remember Pamela?"   
  
"Yes, quite vividly."   
  
"Well, my sisters don't, and she's back."   
  
"Absolutely not!"   
  
"And why?"   
  
"Because if they find out, she will be invited back into the family, and the evil will invade your household again."   
  
"Oh--I see. So what should I do?"   
  
"The same thing you do with the rest of the evil that invades you life--vanquish her!"   
  
"I need to go--now."   
  
"Why."   
  
"She knows who I am and our relationship. If she sees me with you, she will know that it isn't safe."   
  
"Thanks for the warning."   
  
"I'll see you later, sweetheart." Cole started to shimmer away but stopped midway. "Weren't you suppose to be one vacation today?"   
  
"Yah, but it didn't work out. We're going tomorrow."   
  
"Well, have fun."   
  
With that Cole left, this time   
  
Phoebe listened to make sure that Piper was down the stairs and pulled out a notebook and a piece of paper. First she wrote a summoning spell.   
  
To my evil sister, not meant to be   
Come to my bedroom, for only me to see.   
Loose your powers while you're here   
To protect all those I hold dear.   
  
Next she wrote a vanquishing spell.   
  
To my evil sister, not meant to be   
I command you to no longer be   
Your evilness will now be gone   
And our family will no longer bond   
Your existence now shall end   
And to nothingness, to you I send.   
  
"Sort of corny, but I guess it will work." Phoebe couldn't imagine what Prue and Piper would think if they found out that they had another sister, especially and older one who happened to be evil. It was bad enough the first time. What if they invited her into the family? Would the same thing happen? Well, I'm not going to take the chance.   
  
Suddenly Phoebe heard screaming from downstairs. She ran out in the hallway to see what had happened, but no one was in site.   
  
"Anyone home?" she asked.   
  
At the bottom of the stairs to girls who were extremely out of breath appeared.   
  
"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked her hysteric sisters.   
  
"They've been taken?"   
  
"Who has?"   
  
"Cole and Leo, by someone I think that I have seen before, but I can't remember where."   
  
Phoebe knew immediately who it was. Pam had struck again, and this time she took the two men that her family loved.   
  
"She said that the only way to free them was for Prue to do something - something that there was no way on Earth that she would do. What should we do?"   
  
"I had a premonition while you were gone that everything would be fine, without us being involve."   
  
"So, what should we do?"   
  
"Go to bed!"   
  
The three girls all went to their rooms, but their mind couldn't easily forget the events of the day as their bodies had.   
  
* * *   
  
Phoebe returned to her room and settled in on her bed. "Boy, this is the first time I have been asked for advice, and they actually took it! Guess I better enjoy it while it last."   
  
Phoebe began to read the summoning spell, and of course it worked. Her spell writing powers sure had improved from the first time she tried it! She just hoped that the spells would also bring Cole and Leo back, but for some reason she knew they wouldn't.   
  
In the room a person appeared, and sure enough it was Pam.   
  
"So what do you want? Do you want to apologize for not letting me in your family, because I know you had something to do with it." Pam looked at the book next to Phoebe's book and tried to get it hit Phoebe, but it didn't work. She tried again, and again, but still no luck.   
  
Finally, Phoebe started to laugh. "Your magic won't work here. So, not only can you not use your powers, but also you can't leave. That is until I send you back."   
  
"So send me back."   
  
"Sorry, not yet."   
  
Phoebe looked down at her paper and smiled at her evil sister. "Well, I guess it's time for you to leave."   
  
"Don't think I won't be coming back."   
  
"Don't worry, I don't think it--I know it."   
  
Phoebe began to read her last spell. It was the one to vanquish the trader that was in front of her.   
  
The wind began to pick up in the room, and Pamela started to scream. Phoebe could hear the sound of running footsteps coming up the manor's stairs, but luckily by the time that her sisters arrived Pam was gone--gone for good.   
  
Piper and Prue and returned and had heard the screaming.   
  
"What's wrong?" Piper asked.   
  
"What's wrong?" Piper asked.   
  
"Just a nightmare. I'm fine."   
  
"Well, if you need anything just holler."   
  
"Okay," Phoebe said and smiled at her sisters, before they left the room.   
  
"Oh, why did you get back so fast?"   
  
"A false alarm. Nothing was wrong - what so ever."   
  
Boy were they wrong!   
  
"Goodnight," Phoebe said in hopes of getting rid of her sisters.   
  
"Phoebe hadn't realized how late it was, and since they were leaving early the next morning, she needed to get some sleep. 


	19. Chapter 19

"Phoebe are you ready yet?" Prue asked from her queen size bed. Prue was more than ecstatic when she found out that the management had mistakenly given out their room and all that was left were two adjoining rooms with queen size beds. So to make up for the mistake they got the two rooms for the price of one. Prue was trilled to say the least.   
  
The sisters had decided to take the plan that they had decided upon the day before and arrived at the hotel before they went to the park. It was only for a quick change and a bite to eat, but the quickness had changed to an extensive amount of time. For some reason Phoebe had already spend an hour in the bathroom, and was still not out.   
  
"Just a minute!" Phoebe finally responded.   
  
"You said that twenty minutes ago."   
  
"I mean it this time."   
  
"You also said that twenty minutes ago."   
  
"What's your rush anyway?"   
  
Prue paused for a moment and finally blurted out, "I just want to get going."   
  
The lock on the bathroom door clicked as Phoebe finally opened the door.   
  
"So what do you think?" Phoebe asked while only sticking her head out of the door.   
  
"Phoebe you didn't!" Piper and Prue mouth's dropped open at the ruby red haired girl, head peered around the side of the door.   
  
"I thought that the blond was bad, but this beats everything!"   
  
"Your right. I don't like it either." Phoebe reached up and pulled the bright red wig off of the top of her head.   
  
"Thank goodness!" Piper said relieved that she wasn't going to spend her vacation with a blood red head. "Now come out here and let's go."   
  
Phoebe walked out of the bathroom dressed in what can only be described as not much. Her Daisy Dukes were made of dark blue denim and her top--well it wasn't a top.   
  
"Phoebe! My bra covers more skin!" Prue couldn't believe that her sister was actually considering going out in that outfit.   
  
"This is my bra."   
  
"Oh, thank goodness," Prue sighed underneath her breath.   
  
"How many more times are you guys going to say that?"   
  
"How many more times are you going to give us reason to?" Piper responded.   
  
"Now toss me my shirt so we can get out of here."   
  
Phoebe put on her tank top and the girls finally left the room.   
  
"Any chance that you guys brought something really nice? Like a dress?" Prue asked as she put the key in the door.   
  
"Yah, why? It's not like we need it tonight."   
  
"I was just wondering if we had the chance to go somewhere if we would be prepared."   
  
"Oh--" Piper started to say as the walked toward the elevator door, but she stopped as a tear started to roll down her check.   
  
Phoebe saw her sister's sadness and decided to see what she could do. "What's wrong?"   
  
"I miss--"   
  
Phoebe looked back at her lonely sister. "I know--I miss Cole too."   
  
"Too bad they couldn't come," Prue said trying to comfort her sisters while fighting back a smile. "I think that we would all enjoy the vacation more if they were there. After all we have the room for them. You know if they just show up I would be more than happy to have them join us."   
  
Piper and Phoebe smiled at the idea, but it was too bad that the wish just wouldn't happen. It sure seemed like Prue was not her normal self. She must be up to something, but the self-pity was taking most of the girls' attention.   
  
"Let me get the elevator!" Phoebe yelled as the two year old in her came back to life. She ran the rest of the way down the hall and hit the call buttons promptly.   
  
Prue and Piper caught up with her just in time to see the door open. In front of them stood Cole and Leo. Their arms were overflowing with red roses. Phoebe and Piper ran into the elevator and into the arms of the men that they hadn't been with in over a week.   
  
"I love you," Phoebe cried as tears poured down her freshly made-up face, "thank you for coming, but how did you--"   
  
"Don't thank us. It was Prue that arranged this," Leo broke in.   
  
"Now, it is time for you four to go to dinner, and have a romantic night. We'll go to the park tomorrow. So go back to the room and change, and this time don't take so long Phoebe."   
  
"But Prue what are you going to do?" Piper asked seeming concerned. "We don't want you to feel left out."   
  
"Don't worry about me. I have my own plans." Prue pulled out her press pass from her pocket and a ticket to the concert she had talked about going to. "If this doesn't get me a promotion, nothing will!" Prue reached out her hand and gave Phoebe three $100 bills and her credit card. "This should get you to the best restaurant in Los Angeles and back, and make sure you get the best meal you can think of - my treat."   
  
"Really Prue?" Phoebe couldn't believe that her sister was actually paying for a night of pleasure for four.   
  
"Yes, really. Now go and have some fun. I won't be home until 3 or 4. Oh, and I have my own room for tonight. So you guys each have a room to yourself."   
  
"Thanks, I can't believe--" Piper started.   
  
"Just promise me one thing," Prue grabbed Piper's and Phoebe's heads and brought them together so that she could whisper in their ears, "No glove, no love. We don't want any extra baby witches running around just yet, do we?"   
  
Piper and Phoebe smiled at Prue acknowledging her request. Prue was right, none of the Charmed Ones were ready to be mothers yet, even thought Piper was married.   
  
"I'm going to have to put this day in my diary as soon as we get back. I can't believe what a great vacation this has turned in to," Piper declared.   
  
Phoebe started to giggle. "Hey Leo--know anything about diaries?"   
  
Leo looked down as his face turned bright red. "Guess I've been caught."   
  
"Yep," Piper replied.   
  
"Sorry."   
  
"Apology accepted," the three girls answered in unison.   
  
The group walked back to their hotel rooms, hand in hand. Soon their eventful nights would begin. The power, love, and understanding of the Charmed Ones was expanding and proving that love does concur all. 


End file.
